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UA-PTC Windgate Gallery to host “How We Rebuild” exhibit Jan. 29 - March 15

After conflicts have ended, what does it take to recover the heartbeat of humanity?

How We Rebuild, the compelling new exhibit at University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College’s Windgate Gallery Jan. 29 - March 15, examines the complexities inherent in finding answers to this question.

The college will host an opening reception Thursday, February 8, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Center for Humanities and Arts, also known as CHARTS. The reception and exhibit are open to all ages free of charge. Windgate Gallery hours are 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; closed weekends.

How We Rebuild

The exhibition How We Rebuild draws from twelve years of work created by grant winners and finalists from The Aftermath Project, a non-profit organization committed to telling the other half of war stories. After the conflicts have ended, what it does it take for individuals to rebuild destroyed lives and homes, to restore civil societies, and to address the lingering wounds of war while struggling to create new avenues for peace?

Documentary photographer Sara Terry founded The Aftermath Project in an effort to impart the importance of "aftermath photography." Yearning for a society that doesn't forget the people and places that conflict photography covers, saying: "If I can get you to care, then perhaps I can get you to think, and if I can get you to think, perhaps I can get you to act.”

The photos selected for How We Rebuild have been curated in a way to center and reflect on the human stories and memories that define us. The assembly of images feature moments of hope, agency, and resilience. The exhibition is organized in three sections: a prologue that features conflict and post-conflict photographs from Bosnia and lays out the origin story of The Aftermath Project; a suite of images by four photographers who explore historical American aftermaths; and an international "wall of humanity" titled World of Aftermaths featuring post-conflict images from around the world from Northern Ireland to Sierra Leone and Ukraine.

“The end of war does not mean peace. It is simply the end of death and destruction. Every story of war includes a chapter that almost always goes untold —the story of the aftermath, which day by day becomes a prologue of the future," states Terry.

The exhibition invites audiences to engage with the visual narratives and reflect on the role of the photographs in helping communities heal.

This beautiful assembly of images of hope, agency, and resilience includes work by Aftermath Project founder Sara Terry, war photographer Ron Haviv, 2019 grant winner Glenna Gordon, 2016 grant winner Nina Berman, 2012 grant winner Andrew Lichtenstein, 2010 finalist Jessica Hines and additional Aftermath Project grant winners and finalists.

About The Aftermath Project

The Aftermath Project, founded in 2006, holds a yearly grant competition open to working photographers worldwide covering the aftermath of conflict. Additionally, through partnerships with universities, photography institutions, and non-profit organizations, the Project seeks to help broaden the public's understanding of the true cost or war -and the real price of peace- through international traveling exhibitions and educational outreach in communities and schools.

The Aftermath Project is an outcome of photographer and writer Sara Terry's five-year-long project Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace, about the aftermath of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She completed her work in 2005, convinced that a broader public understanding and discussion of aftermath issues was crucial in a world where the media regularly covers war, but rarely covers the stories that follow the aftermath of violence and destruction. Terry founded The Aftermath Project as a way to help photographers tell these crucial stories.

For more information about The Aftermath Project, visit www.theartermatheroiect.org.

How We Rebuild is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance with the Arkansas Arts Council and The National Endowment for the Arts. ExhibitsUSA sends more than twenty-five exhibitions on tour to over 100 small-and mid-sized communities every year. These exhibitions create access to an array of arts and humanities experiences, nurtures the understanding of diverse cultures and art forms, and expands access to encourages cultural experiences in communities.

About CHARTS

The Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS) is on the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Main Campus in North Little Rock. Opened in 2016, the 90,000 square-foot facility houses both the Windgate Gallery and a 452-seat proscenium theater for concerts, theater performances, recitals, and other events. For more information, contact Michele Grainger, at [email protected] or (501) 812-2387.