The Project as Originally Conceived

The Vet Art Project is my response to people not talking about war, not feeling the reality of war, and not paying any personal price (except for those who have lost loved ones or who have loved ones who return again and again for extended tours of service in Iraq or Afghanistan) so that war continues unabated. Participating in peace demonstrations, that are NOT AGAINST SOLDIERS, BUT AGAINST AN UNJUST WAR, was no longer enough. And as an artist, I felt that I could contribute more to this equation.

The answer came to me via a late night radio program aired on Chicago Public Radio, an interview that originated out of Wisconsin, with Ed Tick and John Zemler. Tick was promoting his book War and the Soul: Healing the Nation's Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Quest Books, 2005) and getting the word out about workshops he was conducting across the country the veterans and members of the community.

To jump ahead in my process, here's what Tick states in his book followed by my original goals:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) results from military/combat duty and the condition can only be managed with therapy and sharing one’s stories with others within the family and with the larger community. At its most effective storytelling “must go beyond the therapeutic setting and an exclusively veteran audience to take place before members of the general populace” and “survivors need to gather and share in [a] living community” to heal.

The Vet Art Project pairs veterans who have experienced PTSD with artists to:

• Build another source of support and sharing to help in the healing process, and to
• Create storytelling through stage plays, dance choreography, and music composition, to convey the stories and emotions of veterans lives, and to
• Perform these stories in staged readings of plays and/or dance recitals and/or musical compositions and/or film to share these stories with the larger community, and to thereby
• Foster healing and provide outreach to veterans in need and to
• Educate the community about the realities of war and to
• Provide new connections between veterans and the audience who witness their stories and to
• Offer additional creative opportunities to artists

This is my idea of how, as an artist, I could contribute to this healing process and educate the community while providing new artistic outlets for fellow artists.