WNC Exhibition 'Always Lost: A meditation on War' returns to Nevada Legislative Building
Scheduled to speak at the opening are Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, Assembly Speaker John Hambrick, Nevada Military and Veterans Policy Director Caleb Cage and Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell. The event is free and open to the public. See the flier below.
This special venue is part of the NV150 Sesquicentennial tour sponsored by the Nevada Department of Veterans Services. On Veterans Day, 2014 Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval officially honored “Always Lost: A Meditation on War,” in a proclamation. In October of last year the exhibit was officially recognized by the Carson City Board of Supervisors.
Always Lost is a poignant memorial that personalizes the costs of war and honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who made it home. Created in a classroom at Western Nevada College in 2009, Always Lost has been bringing its message of awareness and unity to communities throughout the nation since 2010.
The core of the exhibit is the Wall of the Dead, which includes the names and photographs of the more than 6,800 American casualties in the two wars. It also includes 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning combat photos shown by permission of the Dallas Morning News, as well as literary work from Professor Emeritus Marilee Swirczek’s creative writing classes at WNC, veterans and their families, members of the Lone Mountain Writers group, and other contributors.
In fall 2008, Western Nevada College sociology professor Don Carlson was stopped in his tracks by The New York Times' Roster of the Dead. "Four thousand faces of American military who had perished in Iraq stared at me," he said, "and I realized that this war has been perhaps one of the most impersonal wars ever fought."
He approached English professor Swirczek and they envisioned an art/humanities exhibition that would personalize the wars — Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom — through poems, prose and photographs. English instructor and retired Marine Major Kevin Burns selected the name for the exhibition from an observation by American writer Gertrude Stein: "War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost."
The Always Lost project team is committed to keeping the Wall of the Dead current in honor of those who gave their lives and those who made it home.
al_leg_thisone.pdf by Carson Now
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