January – May 2018
“War is Only Half the Story” is the tenth-anniversary exhibition of The Aftermath Project, a non-profit, grant-making and educational organization that support photographers documenting the aftermath of conflict. The exhibition highlights The Aftermath Project’s commitment to educating the public about the true cost of war and the real price of peace through visual storytelling.
From January thru May, 2018, the Norton Center, along with other Centre College and community partners will present a series of programs that address difficult humanitarian issues that are at the forefront of most, if not all, of our daily conversations and lives. Within the series, Exploring Conflict: An Artistic Perspective, the focus for each of these programs is to explore the human experience and human condition. Using many different art forms, these global and local stories of hope, maintenance, humor, survival and reconciliation all show that as different as we all are, we collectively share core traits.
The commonality among this theme and all of the various stories of the human condition is one action: conflict.
The outcomes from this action affects most of us, if not millions of people, worldwide. Whether the conflict stems from race or ethnicity, religion or faith, sexual orientation or gender, power or poverty, health or misfortune, it seems to focus on personal advantage over the celebration of our commonalities. Conflicts, whether personal or collective, local or global focus on the singularly important component – human lives – and tends to create symptoms of fear based on uniqueness. And, in fearing differences between or among persons, people or communities, reactions can quickly develop into divisions and systems begin to break down.
From January to May, we extend an open invitation to examine stories as responses, not reactions, to conflict. We identify ways people heal, forgive, rebuild, survive, and help to bring us back together. We celebrate the stories of our global brothers and sisters as survivors – not victims. Through the list of activities below we invite you to explore, examine, and discover.