Through a Soldier’s Eyes: Remembering Vietnam is a collaborative project between the Rowan Public Library and the Waterworks Visual Arts Center. This special exhibition honors and illustrates the Vietnam experiences of local servicemen and women through a powerful and creative assemblage of selected artifacts, photographs, and oral histories gathered over the last twelve months. During the thirteen-week exhibition, visitors to the Waterworks will have the opportunity to view this extraordinary display of photographs and works of art, listen to recorded stories, and interact and/or react with the exhibition at three activity stations:Message to a Hero – a wall designated for visitors to write a message, add a picture, or remembrance in honor of a special soldier(s); Hero’s Rock – visitors may write the name of a fallen hero on a commemorative rock and place it in the heart-shaped memorial that will be moved following the exhibition and placed on permanent display in the South Rowan Library Garden; Record Your Story – Veterans from all wars are encouraged to record their personal stories in an especially designed recording booth.All collected pictures and stories will be archived and kept in the Edith M. Clark History Room Collection at the main branch of Rowan Public Library in Salisbury.
Waterworks, in partnership with the Rowan Public Library, will host a final special event for Imprints exhibition on Tuesday, November 1 at 7 pm. Gallery guest speaker Sharon D. Raynor will present her oral history project "Breaking the Silence: The Unspoken Brotherhood of Vietnam Veterans." Her oral history highlights the war experiences of Vietnam veterans of North Carolina. Funded by the NC Humanities Council, her program explores the concepts of trauma, silence, healing, and recovery. The project evolved from her father's war experiences as seen and told in his photographs and diary kept during his tour of duty. During the project, veterans who were once silenced by their memories of war shared their stories of indignities and pride, disappointment and sacrifice, honor and death, healing and recovery. Dr. Raynor also shares videotape clips of the public forums as well as excerpts from the oral history interviews, photographs, newspaper articles, and memorabilia from the war.
This event is free. In order to help us prepare, please call 704-636-1882 or email marketing@waterworks.org if you plan to attend.
If you would like to participate in "Write a Message to a Hero", leave a message in our online guestbook and we will add it to the "Message to a Hero" wall.
We salute our Rowan County Veterans who have contributed to this exhibition
Karl “Andy” Arthur Paul Baker Lloyd (Ken) Kenneth Beck Douglas Black Malcolm Blankenship Pleasant (Arthur) Brown Tyrus (Ty) R. Cobb, Jr. Thurmond Cowan Rodney Cress Robert DeRosa *Wayne Fraley
David Garmon Nathaniel Givens Perry Goodman* David Hand Richard Hannold, Jr. Michael "Whitey" Harwood Michael Hartness Larry (Wayne) Hinson Mitchell Houck, Jr. William (Bill) Kenerly Jimmy McCullough
Donald Menius Michael Morgan Charles (Carroll) Owen Adil Saleem Hayden Simmerson Ronald Smith Michael Stracuzzi Thomas Talbert, Jr. Robert Trexler Daniel Wilson Louis Wise* *deceased
