New York City is host to art programs for diverse populations offered in a range of venues: museums, schools, libraries, cultural institutions and hospitals. It is rare to get a glimpse of artworks made by veterans of military service.
From 2008-2017 the Veterans Creative Arts Program, hosted at the Veterans Affairs (VA) New York Harbor Hospital, Brooklyn Campus, offered classes for members of the US military to speak creatively about their lives in and out of the service.
The program was designed by artist and creative arts therapist Beryl Brenner who led, with a diverse group of artist and medical collaborators, art projects to introduce participants to a wide range of art media and prompts. They elicited an impressive and moving array of artworks. In 2017 Brenner donated this collection of more than 800 digital images documenting the program to the Brooklyn Public Library. All these works are documented and made available with the express permission of the artists.
The works evoke a dazzling array of impressions: raw, emotional, playful, searching, ingenious, philosophical and beautiful. Brenner brought her own experience working with governmental and arts organizations to support and present the workshops and exhibits. Participants’ artworks were shown and panel discussions hosted at many cultural venues including Whitney Museum; Museum of Modern Art; Veterans Affairs Regional Office museum in NYC; Vietnam Era Museum & Educational Center, NJ; Callahan Center Art Gallery, St. Francis College; Unique Photo Hoboken; Brooklyn Museum and SoHo Photo Gallery. Selections from the program have also been featured in public art installations including NYC DOT Urban Art and Story Corps, and municipal buildings including Staten Island’s Borough Hall and Brooklyn’s Borough Hall.
Brenner clearly created a safe space for exploration and the artworks display a wide range of responses. Here is a brief introduction to some of the projects and themes in the collection.
Project: Inked identity, 2011: veterans explore tattoos. This project, a collaboration between the VA and Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) Education Department Access Programs, had participants design a personal tattoo as a print. The works were shown at MoMA’s Cullen Gallery in 2011.
Project: Battle after the battle, 2013, focused on coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Project: American, veteran, me. Collages based on life before military service were displayed at the at David N. Dinkins Municipal Building in 2012. Public exhibitions not only gave participants reinforcement in their process but offered them the opportunity to speak to viewers about their work.
Project: Book of pain, 2013. Participants created autobiographical artist’s books exploring their personal pain, its effect on themselves and their families, and skills that helped them to cope.
Project: Portrait of a veteran, 2012-2014. In a project spanning several years, participants paired to make portrait photographs of each other. The project was a collaboration with Camille Tokerud, affiliated with the Josephine Herrick Project Rehabilitation Through Photography (RTP). The affect of the images range widely - displaying contemplation, pain, humor and joy.
The Clothesline project was repeated over a span of years. It derived from the work begun in 1990 by a coalition of women's groups in Cape Cod, Massachusetts with the goal to educate and bear witness to the issue of violence against women. Eventually, it became apparent not only that sexual assault against women in the military was a major issue, but the problem also affected men. In time, various VA hospitals throughout the country developed their own Clothesline Projects.
Project: Clothesline, 2014. Veteran survivors of military sexual trauma (MST) designed T-shirts exploring their feelings on that issue. Works from this project include examples of visually arresting design, raw poetry and redemptive discoveries.
Project: 'Twas there that I served, 2016. Veterans created cardboard dioramas depicting their place of deployment.
One of the more technically challenging projects was Myself in glass, 2016. Brenner, who herself creates artworks out of glass, called on participants to reflect on personal identity to create tiles from the exacting material with images that range from representational to completely abstract.
In 2017, Beryl Brenner donated the Veterans Creative Arts Program collection to the Brooklyn Public Library and, just before Veterans’ Day, the Brooklyn Collection held an exhibition and reception in honor of the event. Brenner spoke about the genesis of the project, and patrons and staff had the chance to meet the artists and hear how their experiences were embodied in their works. This collection bears witness to the experiences of the people who shoulder the burden of military service and those who care for them. It gives the rest of us an opportunity to broaden our understanding of a world rarely on view.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
This is fantastic, and just
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