Nationally touring war exhibition 'Always Lost' returns to Nevada’s capital with reception this morning

In 2009, Carson City poet Teresa Breeden wrote: “Listen. These soldiers were all children once…they stood in that first pair of shoes, released supports, leaned into the wind of unknowing, wobbled that first step toward war.” Literary work by Breeden and other Nevada writers accompany photographs of the nearly 7,000 U.S military Iraq and Afghanistan war dead since Sept.11, 2001, all part of the nationally touring arts and humanities exhibition “Always Lost: A Meditation on War.”

“Always Lost” returns to the Nevada Legislative Building atrium in Carson City April 6 through 22 on an Official Nevada Sesquicentennial Tour sponsored by the Nevada Department of Veterans Services (NDVS).

An opening ceremony is planned for Monday, April 6 from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. in Room 1214. Scheduled to speak are Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, Assembly Speaker John Hambrick, Nevada Military and Veterans Policy Director Caleb Cage, and Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell.

There will be a Presentation of the Colors and Sounding of Taps. The opening and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Breeden penned those lines in a creative writing class at Western Nevada College that culminated in a unique exhibition that captured the hearts of people across the United States. The course was inspired by Sociology Professor Don Carlson who made an observation in 2008 after viewing The New York Times’ Roster of the Dead: “Four thousand faces of American military who had perished in Iraq stared at me, and I realized that this war has been perhaps one of the most impersonal wars the U.S. has ever fought.”

He and English Professor Marilee Swirczek envisioned a project that would personalize the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through words and images, even if only for a class of 40 students. “One percent of our population composes our armed forces,” Swirczek said. “This was an important topic for the rest of us — the 99 percent — to think about.”

The exhibition includes Pulitzer Prize-winning Iraq War combat photographs, courtesy of The Dallas Morning News, taken by photojournalists David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer, who were embedded with Marine units in Iraq in 2003. A study of Spc. Noah Pierce, who took his own life after serving two tours in Iraq, calls attention to the epidemic of veteran suicides in the U.S.

Swirczek and her students never envisioned that their class project would be called “a national treasure.” After its installation at WNC in 2009, requests for “Always Lost” came from across the country. The Nevada Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, and local donations funded the creation of a traveling exhibition in 2010. The Carson Nugget/Community First initiative funded a second copy, which also went on the road.

Project Manager Amy Roby, a student in the original class, says, “It humbles me that this project created at our small college here in Nevada has become a sacred space for people all over the nation to contemplate the costs of war.” The national exhibition is booked into 2016. “By then,” Roby adds, “‘Always Lost’ will have brought its message of awareness and unity to 50 U.S. venues.”

In 2014, NDVS Director Kat Miller conceived of a unique use for “Always Lost”: to raise public awareness among Nevadans regarding the personal and collective costs of war in order to highlight the challenges of reintegration for returning service members. “I saw ‘Always Lost’ as a way to serve veterans by promoting a statewide conversation about veterans’ issues important to Nevada and our nation,” Miller said, “and to inspire a sense of collective responsibility and respect that drives workforce, educational, and wellness opportunities for veterans in Nevada.”

Through April 2016, NDVS is underwriting shipping and exhibition material costs for Nevada venues. To date, the “Always Lost” Sesquicentennial Tour has traveled to Ely, Las Vegas, Minden, and Elko and is scheduled for Carson City, Hawthorne, Tonopah, Pahrump, Fallon, and Beatty. Some openings are still available on the Nevada tour schedule.

“Thanks to NDVS, Nevadans have the opportunity to experience what Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell calls our community’s gift to the nation,” adds Roby.

A guest book that travels with “Always Lost: A Meditation on War” records viewers’ experiences of the powerful exhibition. One entry reads: “You could not possibly leave this exhibition the same person you were when you walked in.”

For more information, go to www.wnc.edu/always_lost/ or call (775) 445-4243.