To Speak for Peace is a demonstration of public art, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and honoring all people who speak for peace and who understand human rights and needs. Sculptors Jill Waterhouse, Denny Sponsler, and Sara Peterson, United Nations Association of Minnesota (UNA-MN) Curriculum Teacher Mary Eileen Sorenson, and twenty-five students in Grades 6-12 from Ramsey Fine Arts International School and South High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota created an outdoor sculpture for the Lehmann Center, a multi-use facility of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The sculpture is made up of four three-and-one-half foot heads of stoneware clay with shoulders and interlocking arms.

Denny Sponsler and Mary Eileen Sorenson developed a two-week curriculum based on a variety of resources. A thread carried through the two-week workshop was a collection of images, songs, poems, and words of people throughout history, from all parts of the world, who have struggled for peace and human rights. Over 70 quotes from individuals, as well as U.N. human rights documents, images, symbols, icons, and banners of war and peace decorated the walls of the classroom as participants explored the history of friendship and sacrifice that are the cause of joy and hope in a troubled world. Classroom lessons, adapted from UNA-MN modules on human rights, centered on personal, global, and ethnic struggles of war/violence and peace.

Due to the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II and the beginning of the U.N., visitors from UNA-MN and other peace organizations came to the class and helped the participants focus on the relationship between the obligation to respect human rights and to speak for peace.

Participants learned about German artist Kaethe Kollwitz, who after losing a son in World War I and a grandson in World War II, pleaded through her art, “No more war.” Lessons on the global struggle of World War II centered on drawings, paintings, and poetry of the victim-survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Slides of the art of refugee children from Bosnia and Croatia spoke of today’s tribal/ethnic struggle. These young people spoke through their stories, poetry, diaries, and artwork. Participants related to the importance of human rights and to the challenges of making and sustaining peace both personally and universally.

The process began as the students reflected on their experience in the workshop and wrote in their journals. Each day participants shared insights, poetry, and favorite readings on respect, tolerance, and peace. As the young artists applied underglaze to the sculpted heads, recognizable images of peace and words of respect, tolerance, responsibility, and universal human rights appeared. Again and again, pleas for peace were evident. As with Kaethe Kollwitz, the atomic bomb victims, and the children of former Yugoslavia, the workshop participants did not blame through their art and words. They simply and powerfully state, “No more war.”

The sculpted forms were then fired, set in concrete, and installed in the earth along the stepped terracing at the Lehmann Center. August 24, 1995 was the dedication and installation day for the project. Community members, area merchants, families, artists, and UNA members gathered to commemorate the past, celebrate the present, and renew hope for the future. At the center of the sculpted heads is a seven-foot frame that holds a bronze peace bell, cast by sculptor Bill Ploetz and dedicated in a sunrise ceremony on October 24, 1995. It is hoped that when the bell is rung, the sound will remind all who hear it that peace is possible. The community also hopes that the sculpture will become the center of a public gathering place to become peaceful and renewed.

The artist team is currently seeking funds to create a training model and workshop for teachers on cross-discipline projects on human rights and peace building. These opportunities would involve art teachers, community-based artists, and teachers from social studies, humanities, and a variety of other disciplines. Community-based programs and neighborhood youth organizations are especially encouraged to participate. Information is available through UNA-MN Education Programs, c/o Mary Eileen Sorenson, 1377 Sumner Street, St. Paul, MN 55116, 612-698-7157. A state division of the national non-profit organization (UNA-USA), UNA-MN is dedicated to building support for a more effective United Nations and to educating individuals of all ages about the need for active participation in a world of global change and challenge.