GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — This weekend, you might see some familiar faces projected onto the side of 975 Ottawa Avenue NW in Grand Rapids. It’s a slideshow that’s part of an interactive ArtPrize installation. The photos being projected were taken in the past few days, and it’s all part of a bigger collection that the artist started working on nearly 15 years ago.
“I'm a photographer and a storyteller,” artist John Noltner said. “I'm here with an exhibit called Lessons on the Road to Peace. It's part of a bigger project called A Peace of My Mind.”
Since 2009, Noltner has been asking the question “What does peace mean to you?” He travels the country, interviewing people and snapping photos. It’s a project that continues to expand as he meets new people, and the installation at ArtPrize is the most recent collection of stories.
“For this exhibit, my wife and I traveled two and a half years, 93,000 miles across the country living in our van, Vinnie Van Gogh, meeting people from all different backgrounds. And really the goal of the project is, in a divided world to remember what connects us,” Noltner said. “We went to the border to talk about immigration, we went to Mississippi to talk about moving Confederate monuments, we went to Skid Row to talk about housing security. We really intentionally visited a lot of the pain points in our country, but always with an eye towards finding people who are looking for creative solutions to these really challenging issues. These stories to me are about hope, finding a path forward through all of these difficult issues.”
The exhibit, which is on the second floor of SILVA, offers a chance to learn about a wide array of people. No interaction is necessary. Onlookers can simply make their way through the display, reading one or more of the roughly 64 stories. There’s also an interactive element, for those wanting to share their own story.
“I call it public art, and it only works when the public shows up,” Noltner said. “So we set up a studio and we invite people to share a story in 25 words or less. You don't have to say it out loud. You just have to write it on the piece of paper. Then, we do a black and white portrait. We combine the words and the image, and by the end of ArtPrize, we hope to have this whole body of work of people talking about courage. So the question we're asking at ArtPrize – 'When have you found unexpected courage?' People can interpret that however they like. It takes just a few minutes, and everybody who participates will get a link at the end. They can see the whole gallery, they can download their own image, and they're free to do anything they like with that.”
The photos of those people, along with the words they shared, are projected onto the south wall of SILVA every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 to 9 p.m. And Noltner is not stopping there. He said his next adventure in storytelling involves international travel.
“We'll go to Rwanda to talk about how they moved through their genocide. We'll go to northern Ireland to talk about how they've dealt with their sectarian violence,” he said. “And really, again, look for examples of ways that people have moved through conflict and through difficult times, and hope that we can amplify and elevate those and use them for a roadmap and a path forward.”
To learn more about A Peace of My Mind, click here.
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