On First Friday, Jan. 2, 2015, the Speaking Volumes Transforming Hate exhibit will open at the Living Arts Myers gallery. The curator of "Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate" Katie Knight will give a talk at 5:30pm, and the opening reception will be held from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

In 2004 the Montana Human Rights Network purchased 4,000 publications of extreme anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, racist "bibles" from a defecting leader of one of the most virulent white supremacist groups in the United States.  The Network and the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, MT, invited artists from across the country to transform these materials in provocative ways.  Forty-six of the resulting works form the Speaking Volumes Transforming Hate exhibit.

A Montana newspaper columnist wrote of the original 2008 exhibit, "Some artists pulped the pages of the books, completely remaking them into something altogether different.  Others altered the texts more subtly.  New York artist Charles Gute took pages of the books and marked them up, substituting words to create a whole reversal of the message."  By responding creatively to hate, injustice, and violence, the artworks in the Speaking Volumes Transforming Hate exhibit promote thinking and conversations that encourage empathy for others and respect for social justice.

Living Arts will also host a symposium on Jan. 10, 2015, during which scholars will discuss how art can bring about reconciliation, build bridges, and transform hate.  Symposium participants will include Dr. Jocelyn Payne, Executive Director of Tulsa's John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, and Ms. Katie Knight, curator of the Speaking Volumes Transforming Hate exhibit.  Admission to the gallery and the symposium is free, and the exhibit will run through Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015.


FOR MORE INFO, PLEASE VISIT:
http://livingarts.org/speaking-volumes-transforming-hate