Contact: Jennifer Fortney 773/529-7547 jfortney@cascadecomms.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 3, 2005 NATIONAL VIETNAM VETERANS ART MUSEUM JOINS COMMIT TO MEMORY Four Fine Art, Photography and Artifact Exhibits To Be Part of City-Wide Exploration of Vietnam War August 1, 2005, Chicago—On Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2005, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Transportation will unveil the new Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial at Wabash Plaza designed by renowned artist and Vietnam vet Gary Tillery. In the months leading up to the dedication, five Chicago cultural institutions will invite the city to explore the complex history, memory and legacy of the Vietnam War through visual imagery, theater, film and public discussion in a unique, two-month memorial throughout Chicago entitled Commit to Memory. Commit to Memory will run from September 6–November 11, 2005 and will include programs from The Gene Siskel Film Center, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Pritzker Military Library, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and The Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. Commit to Memory offers a vibrant platform for cross-generational, multi-faceted, democratic dialogue that will honor the experiences of the past and educate the audiences of today. The Vietnam Veterans Art Museum (NVVAM) continues its showing of artwork by veterans and its two latest exhibits Trauma & Metamorphosis II and First to Fight: the US Marines in Vietnam. Trauma & Metamorphosis II shows the transfiguration of these soldiers’ memories of the atrocities they’ve experienced, turning it into art. All of Trauma & Metamorphosis artists endure symptoms of PTSD in varying degrees and have chosen to share their journey of healing through this very special exhibit that runs through 2006. First to Fight: US Marines in Vietnam, the Early Years includes more than 90 works of art created by Marines and Navy Hospital Corpsman, and features Chicago artist Michael Wilkins. These works encompass the early era of the Vietnam War from the landing of the first Marine combat troops in early 1965 to the Tet Offensive of January 1968. Opening September 16, 2005 is Things We Carried based on the novel by Tim O’Brien, it is an interactive and educational exhibit for students to experience and feel the physical and emotional weight carried by American soldiers in Vietnam. NVVAM hosts a Marine Corps Birthday Party from 6:00-9:00 p.m. Thursday, November 10 and continues its Veterans’ Day tradition with a new exhibit Purple Heart Exhibit with a Veterans Day Celebration Opening Reception and Welcome Home of Iraq War Veterans by Vietnam Veterans from 3:00-7:00 p.m. Friday, November 11, 2005. The Museum will remain open throughout the Veterans’ Day Weekend, including Sunday Noon-5:00 p.m. The complete list of events for Commit to Memory is as follows: National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum (NVVAM) presents a series of exhibitions and events running September 2–November 11, 2005: Trauma and Metamorphosis II While the stigma against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder continues, veterans around the country have found a way to let the healing process begin—making art. Although many may never fully recover, creating art has provided a chance for them to express the joy, pain, fear and devastation of their experiences in Vietnam, becoming an outlet for their inner voices. The artistic process, alone, has been an essential ingredient for the recipe of good mental health and spiritual nourishment; something they never had before. It has taken several veterans 20 years to begin using art to explore their past experiences, their emotions towards life-altering moments from Vietnam. Trauma & Metamorphosis II shows the transfiguration of these soldiers’ memories of the atrocities they’ve experienced, turning it into art. For the first time, these veterans and artists gain some measure of control over their Vietnam traumas, allowing the process of healing to begin. All of Trauma & Metamorphosis artists endure symptoms of PTSD in varying degrees and have chosen to share their journey of healing through this very special exhibit that runs through 2006. First to Fight: the US Marines in Vietnam First to Fight: US Marines in Vietnam, the Early Years includes more than 90 works of art created by Marines and Navy Hospital Corpsman, and features Chicago artist Michael Wilkins. These works encompass the early era of the Vietnam War from the landing of the first Marine combat troops in early 1965 to the Tet Offensive of January 1968. The artwork that makes up First to Fight offers an insight into the unique role of the Marine Corps early on in the war. As a small, but hard hitting and self-contained strike force, Marines were the first American combat troops to land in Vietnam and were assigned to protect the combat airbase at Danang and the border of North Vietnam. Highlights of First to Fight include two recently surfaced collections of artwork produced in the heat of battle. Created in the mid-sixties, but not shown until now, both are recent donations to the NVVAM’s Permanent Collection. Being shown for the first time are some 55 vintage photographs from the collection of Florida-based architect, photographer, collector and author, Mike Harac, who served with the 3rd Marine Division. The photos were taken between 1965 and 1967 by photographers attached to the 3rd Marine Division and 1st Marine Air Wing. The photo prints largely represent Marines on combat operations, and depict what the war actually looked like to troops in the field. First to Fight runs through 2006. Things We Carried An exhibition of fine art, photography and artifacts carried by Vietnam veterans in combat, inspired by the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and named Mayor Daley’s Book of The Year 2004. Things We Carried is an interactive and educational exhibit for students to experience and feel the physical and emotional weight carried by soldiers in Vietnam. The exhibit is in conjunction with Chicago students’ required reading of O’Brien’s The Things We Carried, and allows them the opportunity to dress in combat gear and handle artifacts and items carried by soldiers in the field, who were weighed down by heavy gear, wounded soldiers and children. This exhibit illustrates specific chapters of the book to provide students a real life experience with the novel. Things We Carried opens September 16, 2005 and runs through Memorial Day 2006. Thursday, November 10, 2005 NVVAM hosts a Marine Corps Birthday Party from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., featuring USMC Vietnam Veteran Rick Davis. Rick Davis will read from his book Once a Marine and conduct a signing. The event is free and open to the public. Purple Heart Exhibit Friday, November 11, 2005 NVVAM opens its Purple Heart Exhibit, a photographic portrait of returning Iraqi War Veterans, recipients of the Purple Heart, and what the national honor cost them. These soldiers have all been seriously injured in Iraq; their lives changed forever through their commitment as a soldier. The exhibit includes photos and personal statements from these soldiers on their experience in Iraq and looking ahead to their futures; futures that have been altered forever. The Veterans Day Celebration Purple Heart Opening Reception will be from 3:00–7:00pm, with a Welcome Home of Iraq War Veterans by Vietnam Veterans. The event is FREE and open to the public. The exhibit closes in April 2006. NVVAM is located at 1801 S. Indiana and is open Tuesday-Friday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Saturday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m; Closed Monday. Closed Sunday after Labor Day. Tickets are $10 general admission and $7 seniors and students. Call the Museum at (312)326-0270 for information on group admission reservations. In 1981, a few Vietnam combat veterans created an artistic and historical collection that would become a timeless, humanistic statement of war on behalf of all veterans for future generations. The exhibit toured the United States and later found a permanent home with the help of Mayor Richard M. Daley, at 1801 S. Indiana. Today, the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum (NVVAM) is still located in Chicago’s South Loop and houses over 1500 works of art. The artwork presented at the Museum provides a unique viewpoint on war for all visitors. The collection is born from the sheer sentiment of those who personally experienced the immediate suffering and realities of war. It’s clear the artists have experienced the creative and spontaneous insight, and intuition, that comes from witnessing the magnitude of human combat first-hand. The Gene Siskel Film Center will screen the film Winter Soldier, September 16–22, 2005. Nearly unseen for over 30 years, Winter Soldier (1972) is an extraordinary "lost" documentary of the Winter Soldier Investigation conducted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Detroit during the winter of 1971. Over the course of four days, more than a hundred veterans (including a young John Kerry) gave testimony of atrocities they had witnessed or committed. Tickets to the film are $9 ($5 for Film Center members), $7 ticket price for all students, $4 for student, faculty, and staff of the School of the Art Institute and of the Art Institute. Tickets are available at the Gene Siskel Film Center Box Office which opens at 5pm weekdays and 2pm weekends. Tickets may also be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 312-575-8000 or by visiting ticketmaster.com. The Gene Siskel Film Center selects and presents significant world cinema in a non-commercial context that sets aesthetic, critical and entertainment standards. To this end, the Film Center exhibits a range of carefully curated film art in technically excellent facilities, and educates the audience, setting film in an historical and cultural context through courses, lectures, panel discussions and publications, and through research and collections. For more information on the event, contact Martin Rubin, Associate Director of Programming, at (312) 846-2075 or mrubin1@artic.edu. The Gene Siskel Film Center 164 North State Street Chicago Il 60601 312-846-2600 phone www.siskelfilmcenter.org The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago will present two exhibitions, Stages of Memory: The Vietnam War, and Jeff Wolin’s Vietnam War Veterans: Portraits and Text, October 13–December 17, 2005. Stages of Memory focuses on the excavation and interpretation of memory by first, second and even third-hand witnesses to the Vietnam War. The artists in this exhibition have an intimate relationship with the war through their own childhood experience in Vietnam or that of their parents. They include Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam), Howard Henry Chen (USA), An-My Lê (USA), Johnny Miller (USA) and Liza Nguyen (France). Vietnam War Veterans: Portraits and Text exhibits the work of Jeffrey Wolin (USA), whose critically acclaimed work combines his passion for both text and image by incorporating his subjects’ personal narratives with their portraits. In conjunction with the exhibition, MoCP and the English Department of Columbia College Chicago will host a lecture by National Book Award-winning author and Vietnam Veteran Larry Heinemann. The author of three novels set in the Vietnam War, he has been called “One of America’s most important writers.” The museum is FREE and open to the public. Hours are Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm, Thursdays until 8:00pm, Saturdays 12 to 5pm. There will be an Opening Reception on October 13, 2005 at 6:00pm. The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) is the only museum in the Midwest with an exclusive commitment to the medium of photography. By presenting projects and exhibitions that embrace a wide range of contemporary aesthetics and technologies, the Museum strives to communicate the value and significance of photographic images as expressions of human thought, imagination, and creativity. For more information on the event, contact Jessica Jahner, Development and Communications Manager, at (312) 344-7779 or jjahner@colum.edu. Museum of Contemporary Photography Columbia College Chicago 600 S. Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60605 312.663.5554 phone www.mocp.org The Pritzker Military Library’s Medal of Honor Series will welcome Congressional Medal of Honor recipient COL. Wesley L. Fox, USMC (Ret.) on Thursday, October 27, 2005 for a one-on-one interview with executive director, Ed Tracy. While serving as a rifle company commander with the Third Marine Division in 1969, Fox was twice wounded in a vicious battle during Operation Dewey Canyon. His extraordinary actions are featured in the book Marine Rifleman: Forty-Three Years in the Corps and Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty. COL Fox retired from the Marine Corps in 1993 after forty-three years of distinguished service. In addition to the Medal of Honor, he received two awards of the Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star with Combat V, three awards of the Purple Heart and numerous commendations. A complimentary wine and cheese reception and book signing will be held at 5:00 p.m. at the library located at 610 N Fairbanks Ct. The program begins at 6:00 p.m. The event will be webcast live at the library’s website. The event is FREE and open to the public, however, space is limited and advance reservations are encouraged. Call (312) 587-0234 or visit: www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org. The Pritzker Militairy Library is Chicago's newest military research facility, offering over 13,000 volumes and 200 prints and posters. The Library presents weekly author lectures, interviews and panel discussions to a live audience and exhibits military art and antique posters from its collection. For more information on the event, contact Ed Tracy, Executive Director, at 312-587-0234 or etracy@tawanifoundation.net. Pritzker Military Library 610 North Fairbanks Court Chicago, IL 60611 312-587-0234 www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present Last of the Boys by Steven Dietz, September 15–November 14, 2005. Jeeter arrives in the Great Central Valley to the rusted trailer of his buddy Ben, a fellow Vietnam veteran. Their beer drinking is interrupted by the arrival of Jeeter’s new girlfriend, her crazy mother and a stranger from their shared past. This fierce, funny American story marks the Downstairs Theatre directorial debut of ensemble member Rick Snyder, and features ensemble members Tracy Letts, Mariann Mayberry and Amy Morton. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30 p.m., as well as Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m. and selected Wednesday matinees at 2:00 p.m. Buy tickets online at www.steppenwolf.org or call (312) 335-1650. Tickets are $20-60. Now in its 30th season, Steppenwolf Theatre Company is committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, advancing the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through ongoing group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of thirty-five artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation. For more information on the event, contact William Nedved, Publicist, at (312) 335-1650 wnedved@steppenwolf.org. Steppenwolf Theatre 1650 N. Halsted Street Chicago IL 60614 312- 335–1650 www.steppenwolf.org For more information on each event, please contact the organization’s listed representative. Commit to Memory is sponsored in part by Borders Books, Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Sun-Times, and The Chicago Department of Transportation.