Why This Art Exhibit?
by Margaret Knapke

"A Matter of Heart: Artists for Human Rights in Latin America" ran in the Seattle East Coffeehouse in downtown Dayton, Ohio, from January 8 to February 23, 2001. It evolved out of the participation of many Daytonians in the nationwide effort to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).

Since 1946 the SOA has trained Latin American soldiers (mostly officers) in so-called "low intensity conflict," which typically results in a war against the poor when those soldiers return to their

home countries.  The role of SOA graduates in committing
human rights abuses has been well documented by numerous
human rights
organi- zations,
including
U.N. Truth Commissions, and even the U.S. State Department. More specifically, this exhibit developed out of the federal prosecution in March 2000 of 10 activists  (myself included) for our nonviolent protests at Ft. Benning, GA, home of the SOA.  We were all found guilty of criminal trespassing, despite our  

      Poster from "Freeing the Captive Heart," by David Battle

argument that citizens are required to confront their government when it violates international law. As I prepared for my 3-month prison sentence at Federal Prison Camp Lexington Atwood, I also pondered a conscientious, creative way to pay my $2500 fine.

The logic seemed inescapable to me. Our government continues to condone SOA training (although under a new name) despite its legacy of human rights violations, including torture.  So I determined to pay my fine only symbolically to that government, by paying it actually to an organization helping those who have been violated by torturers.  The Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture fit that bill exactly!

Enter Dayton artists MB Hopkins and Jane Black! MB and Jane graciously embraced my rough idea for an art exhibit around the theme of "healing from torture through community," and then vigorously began turning it into a vibrant reality -- involving many concerned artists -- while I served my time.  (Just knowing that the exhibit was in process heartened me time and again at the FPC.)  We netted $4700 from the sale of the original artwork of "Matter of Heart" along with note cards which were based on selected MoH images.  The Kovler Center was given those proceeds (which they are using for a project in Guatemala), along with one of the pieces of artwork -- Amy Kollar Anderson's "Healing Garden."

About that name change: by the end of 2000, the SOA had become duly alarmed by grassroots and Congressional scrutiny of the School and its ugly historical record.  And so on December 15, 2000 the SOA officially closed its doors!  But those same doors re-opened on January 17 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.  Predictably and transparently, Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera claimed that day that the WHISC should not be blamed for the SOA's history!  But the movement to close the SOA -- whatever it is called -- will continue.  (Note:  Caldera and other supporters insist on using WHINSEC as the acronym for the new name, no doubt because the more natural acronym WHISC too perfectly connotes the real intention behind the new name, viz., sweeping the SOA's ugly history under the proverbial rug!  But I digress.)

I want to thank our community for so warmly receiving and responding to this exhibit. I especially want to thank so many fine area artists: Amy Kollar Anderson, Velma Barber, David Battle, Tim Borgert, Virginia Burroughs, Karen Bailey Earith, John Emery, David Hurwitz, Pat Kambitsch, Jean Koeller, Ray Must, Martin Pleiss, Kazuko Radtke, Joan Tallan, C.A. Tiedemann and Phil Wagar.  Muchissimas gracias to artists/organizers/curators/earthshakers MB Hopkins and Jane Black!

Ed Grant of Digital Shorts helped tremendously with the printing of our gorgeous cards, and Jim Contway generously opened his heart and his coffeehouse so that we could display the work prominently.  Thanks to you both!  And lastly, I want to thank my friends, compañeros and compañeras in the Dayton Pledge of Resistance, who made this exhibit and so much more throughout my prison witness possible.  I am forever grateful.

Click here to view the art and read statements by the artists.

The Program Cover

Our curators Jane Black and MB Hopkins chose this famous archival photograph from the Nicaraguan conflict for the cover of our program. Unfortunately, the photo-
grapher is unknown.

I admit that when I received this photograph in prison as part of the curator's outreach packet for the artists, I was initially disturbed at the inclusion of a weapon. 

But as I contemplated the image throughout that evening, I found myself wondering what had happened to  this mother and her child -- whether they had survived the civil war against Somoza and, if so, whether they later survived the U.S.-backed contra aggression. I found myself thinking about how difficult this young mother's decision to become a combatant must have been. And then I realized that the photograph was perfect for our show, because no other image could capture so well the devastating effects of so-called lowintensity conflict as taught at the SOA -- a type of civilian-targeted warfare that has impelled so many people who would rather be tending their fields, teaching their students, writing their poetry, and caring for their children to defend their communities instead, sometimes with arms.