Alumni Achievement Awards 2018_009
Item
- Alternative Title
- UNL Alumni Award
- Creator
- Karen Blessen
- Date
- 2018
- Identifier
- 014_041918-042219_alumni_award_re photograph
- Dates Completed
- April 19 - 22, 2018
- Keywords
- Alumni Achievement Awards; University of Nebraska Lincoln; April 2018; UNL art department; old friends reunion; Jody Shields; Debby Knotts; Shelley Thornton; Candy Dickenson Becher; Columbus childhood friend; Sandra Johnson; early university days; close friendship; Jane Johnson; Kelly Nash; Shelley’s children; Phoebe Little; Nate Luginbill; Kirby Little; Jihan Najjar; marriage and separation; Gretchen Dykstra; New York visitor; group gathering; professional photographer; David Dale; 705 Y Street; awards banquet; group portrait session; red clothing; black clothing; white clothing; cream clothing; past and present photos; art student visuals; personal archive; digital photos; print photos; Sunday April 22; Jody’s photography; UNL student workshop; workshop documentation; visual narrative; artistic collaboration; community memory; creative legacy; celebration event; photographic record; shared history; university connection.
- Transcription
-
HIXSON-LIED COLLEGE
OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS
Blessen creates 29 Pieces organization in response to tragedy
2:21 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2000, I was lying awake in bed. I heard voices from the street and then shots. A young man was murdered in front of our home. This tragic event changed my life and work as I knew it.
Karen Blessen (B.F.A. 1973) describes this as the event that separates chapter one and chapter two of her successful career as an artist. During chapter one, she was an artist and writer. During chapter two, she founded 29 Pieces, a nonprofit art organization.
29 Pieces embodies everything that lam, and everything I hope my lifes work, she said. The name 29 Pieces refers to 29 pieces of sculpture that I did in 2008. The work is inspired by phrases from sacred passages from the worlds great traditions. ˜If the very world should stop - the first of the 29 pieces of sculpture asked the big question, ˜Why am I here? Each piece is titled ˜Dying of Love is What I Hope For and offers the answers that I discovered.
Since she launched 29 Pieces in 2005, the organization has developed the Artists Making a Kinder World curriculum of 15 lessons that use art to teach non-violence and social and emotional learning. They have worked with more than 50,000 youth in North Texas and trained more than 400 teachers in the curriculum.
When the shooting occurred in front of my home, I could not just accept it. I couldnt let it go, Blessen said. I got to know the parents and siblings of the victim, the shooter and the mother of the shooter. I wanted to understand what this one act of senseless violence had on the families of the victim and shooter and the homicide detective investigating the case.
Editors at the Dallas Morning News approved a story and art package about this, and three years later, One Bullet was published (goml.edu/onebullet).
Between the murder and publication, I did a series of interviews with those impacted by the murder, Blessen said. Per my agreement with the Dallas Police Department, I did not talk about any of the interviews until all the trials in the case were completed, and that took three years. In those three years, I submerged myself in the world of grieving families, statistics about gun.
CELEBRATING ALUMNI
SPRING 2018
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN - Rights
- To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
- Is Part Of
- UNL Alumni Award
- Relation
- Image Gallery