PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Lives lost to senseless gun violence are honored and memorialized through art in an exhibit in New Jersey and another coming to Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia-based Souls Shot Portrait Project connects local fine artists with families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. The artist meets with the family to learn more about the deceased and then creates a work of art that captures the essence of that soul.
“Many of the families I have met in the six years we have been creating these exhibitions, particularly the mothers — display a strength of purpose in spite of their grief, and it is awe inspiring,” said Laura Madeleine, executive director and curator.
“The Souls Shot exhibit is to help us more fully appreciate the loss, the souls of these individuals that have been decimated by gun violence,” said state Sen. Art Haywood. He and other lawmakers and community activists gathered earlier this week to honor their portraits on display at the Capitol in Harrisburg.
“What I hope people learn as they walk past those and remember these stories and continue to see more of them told, is that what we are actually talking about is people’s lives who have been ripped away from their families,” said Adam Garber with Cease Pire PA.
Garber said it’s time for meaningful action in the Pennsylvania Legislature.
“The budget is coming up, and we’re sitting in a building that has an opportunity for a choice, not only to invest in future healing for the families, like the work of this project, but to make sure other portraits don’t have to join them,” Garber said.
Maxine Gooden of Philadelphia lost her son to gun violence in 2017. His portrait is part of the exhibit. She says parents are emotionally spent.
“We are afraid. We have given up hope on our leaders,” Gooden said. “We need you guys to step up, because we are losing innocent children and people every day.”
She said she bears the pain of the frightened children in the city every day.
“They are unsure if they will make it to see tomorrow,” she said. “The hurt and pain I see in the eyes of mothers that don’t know if their children will return home — that don’t know if they will even return home.”
The exhibit just left the Capitol on March 30 and will be installed next at First Presbyterian Church, 201 South 21st Street, in Philadelphia, from April 2 to April 28.
A separate exhibition of portraits from the New Jersey chapter of Souls Shot Portrait Project are available to view by appointment at Monmouth University Center for the Arts, 400 Cedar Avenue, in West Long Branch, New Jersey, through April 13. It will move on to the Willingboro, N.J., library from April 16 through May 31.
Both the Philadelphia and South Jersey exhibits are free and open to the public. For more details about dates and times, and to find out how to make an appointment, visit the Souls Shot Portrait Project website.
