DownStreet Art Exhibit Recalls Rwanda Genocide
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Will Snyder's installation examining the 1994 genocide in Rwanda opens Thursday, Sept. 24, at 77 Main Street as part of DownStreet Art Thursday, an evening of openings and activities around the city."800,000 Acknowledge. Remember. Renew." consists of thousands of handbound books assembled by Snyder, a Pennsylvania artist, and teams of volunteers.
He will be at the gallery Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. to welcome visitors. The exhibit is curated by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts assistant professor Melanie Mowinski, who teaches in the fine and performing arts department.
"800,000" complements MCLA's community read, "An Ordinary Man" by Paul Rusesabagina, speaks on campus Nov. 5 as part of the Public Policy Lecture Series, made possible through the Ruth Proud Charitable Trust.
"An Ordinary Man" and Snyder's work address the tribal genocide 15 years ago during which an estimated 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. The "800,000" installation is an artistic response to the tragedy and is made up of 800,000 pages in 2,500 books displayed in 100 crates: one page for each victim, one crate for each day of the war. Mowinski discovered Snyder's project while attending the Hybrid Book Conference at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she earned her master of fine arts degree in book arts and printmaking.
"I was completely moved by the beauty and the horror of this project, and the fact that this man is barely out of college and decided to devote so much of his time and energy to help the people of Rwanda," she said. "I immediately thought of the community read and all the wonderful connections that we as a community could make — how to take a step beyond just reading about the genocide, and listening to Paul Rusesabagina speak about it, and do something to make a difference. I also couldn't help but think of my own students and the role that social justice and art as a tool of social change has been in my own life and in how I want to share that through my teaching."
The project asks the viewer to acknowledge the war, remember the victims, and help the country by donating $5 to the Kayinamura Foundation, which Snyder founded to provide grants and fellowships for people working to renew Rwanda. Viewers can then place their handprint on one page of a book. The goal is to have each life lost acknowledged, remembered, and renewed through hope while raising more than $4 million for Rwanda. Snyder, who earned his master of fine arts in printmaking at Pennsylvania State University, will give a talk on the project Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. in Room 218 of Murdock Hall on the MCLA campus. The exhibit will be on display at 77 Main St. through Nov. 8.
DownStreet Art is a program of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. For more information visit www.downstreetart.org.
