Mass State House Exhibition in Boston

The date for the reception for Massachusetts State House exhibition has been set. Tuesday May 6th 2008.  The event will start at 3 pm in Nurse's hall. 

The sponsors of the event: Rep. Story of Amherst, Rep.  Verga of Gloucester and Sen McGee will introduce the speakers: Tyler Boudreau, Margaret Oglesby, and Melida and Carlos Arredondo. The Arredondos will read a letter from their son Alexander Arredondo who was killed in action.  The portraits and statements of Tyler, Margaret, and Alexander are all available on the 100 Faces website.  I will provide the closing statements.

This will be an important event in which to bring first hand accounts of the American experience of these wars to the policy makers of Massachusetts and to the public.  The State house with its rich history and historical items from all previous American wars provides an enlightening context for the exhibition.  

When I walked around the State House to figure out how to bring the exhibition to this place I was struck by an important insight.  In this historical government building there are many sculptures and painted portraits which try to capture a historical moment and convey history to the public.  The idea of using portraits and words to convey history is very time tested idea. 

However, these portraits in the state house are of the military and political and social leaders of their days.  Nowhere is there a group of portraits and statements representing a cross section of experiences of a historical event.  Nowhere in the state house.  Why would this be a uniquely modern idea?

It does give me hope to think that our society is capable of  hearing from all perspectives now.  Perhaps in the past society was not ready to engage in this kind of deep exploration of an event.

Matt Mitchell