Exhibition Features Correspondence Revealing How War Changes Lives, Families, Communities
BOULDER CREEK — Highlighting private correspondence from almost every major conflict in U.S. history, new exhibition War Comes Home: The Legacy opens on October 25, 2015 at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum in Boulder Creek. The traveling exhibition, rich with historic and contemporary letters, offers an intimate perspective into the thoughts and emotions of veterans and their families upon a soldier’s homecoming.
War Comes Home: The Legacy is part of Cal Humanities’ current War Comes Home initiative, a thematic program designed to promote greater understanding of veterans and explore how war shapes a community. The exhibition is based on the work of the Center for American War Letters (CAWL) and is presented by Exhibit Envoy. Andrew Carroll, the Director of CAWL and an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author, and John Benitz, Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Chapman University, co-curated the exhibition.
The exhibition explores the joys and hardships that returning soldiers and their families face during homecoming, as expressed through private letters and email correspondence. Spanning conflicts from the Civil War through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and displayed on thirteen interpretive panels, War Comes Home: The Legacy explores the shared themes of wartime separation, the adjustment to life back at home, and the costs of war. As Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres writes, “Those of us coming back…are not looking for sympathy. We might be reluctant at first to talk about what we’ve been through…[but] your support has made this journey an incredible one…Thanks, above all, for listening.”
This exhibition runs through December 4, 2015. An opening reception will be held on October 25, 2015, 2–4 pm. Thank you to exhibit sponsor Boulder Creek American Gas.
As in previous years the San Lorenzo Valley Museum will also be hosting its annual Veterans Day Dinner on Wednesday November 11, 2015 at Scopazzi’s Restaurant and Lounge in Boulder Creek. The dinner includes a program with speaker, pianist, and branch songs, and all Veterans are encouraged to wear their uniform or just their hat, and bring their military memorabilia to share.
Exhibition Support: War Comes Home: The Legacy is a partnership between Cal Humanities, the California State Library and Exhibit Envoy. It is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the BayTree Fund, The Whitman Fund, and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Learn more about Exhibit Envoy at www.exhibitenvoy.org and about Cal Humanities at www.calhum.org.
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War Comes Home: The Legacy Exhibition, October 25 – December 5, 2015, at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum, 12547 Highway 9, Boulder Creek, Wed – Sun, Noon-4pm. Free admission, donations welcome. For more information 831-338-8382, [email protected]. This exhibition highlights private correspondence from almost every major conflict in U.S. history to offer insights into the thoughts and emotions of veterans and families upon their homecoming. Thank you to exhibit sponsor BC American Gas.