Aveson Global Leadership Academy welcomed presenters from Students Rebuild this past Monday morning. The presenters are from the East Coast, but have been touring schools all over the country to illicit support for a project called One Million Bones.
One Million Bones is a large-scale social arts project.
The goal is to raise awareness of genocides and atrocities going on around the world.
The presenters are collecting artwork bones for a collaborative installation of 1,000,000 bones on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from June 8th-10th, 2013. This installation will serve as "a collaborative site of conscience to remember victims and survivors, and as a visible petition to raise awareness of the issue and call upon the government to take much needed and long overdue action".
After the assembly, Aveson's Sculpture elective, led by Professor Leo Hobaica from Cal Arts, and volunteers from a student service learning club founded by Aveson High Schooler Purag Moumdjian, set to work on making the artwork to represent the massive loss of life and humanity.
The bones were handmade of foil and plaster, shaped to represent actual human remains. Once the group created the works of art and set them out to dry, students and staff looked at the creation and discussed. When asked how the artwork made them feel, students remarked, "astonished", "angry", and "disgusted".
Even though they had just created these sculptures from simple foil and plaster, the reality of what they meant took hold. It was powerful for everyone involved.
Next, students who participated in the initial creation will be bringing their knowledge to classrooms throughout the school, hoping to lead bone making workshops. Staff is considering available times.
Aveson will be sending its work to Washington D.C by the end of March. Donations to help with the postage will be gratefully accepted.
Taken From http://www.onemillionbones.org/the-project/
We never cease to be amazed at how many people have only the most vague notion of what genocide is, and how many more have no idea it’s happening now."
At One Million Bones we are committed to leveraging the power of art to inspire activism. As artists and activists ourselves, we feel the most powerful thing we can do to effect change is to use art as a means of introducing people to the issue and offering actions related to it.
