'GlassBook Project' Show at NPL HQ Thursday

The GlassBook Project seems, from a complicated explanation in a press release, to be a combination art show and mental-health program for people who have suffered lasting damage from domestic violence and use glass in art to help them express what they have gone thru, and strive to recover. Seeing the art may be simpler than trying to explain it. Before I quote from the press release's explanation of the Project, let me give its basic information about the reception.

WHAT: Exhibition Reception and Programs
WHEN: October 28th, from 5-8pm
WHERE: Auditorium Fourth Floor, Newark Public Library

5:00-6:00pm
Exhibition reception
Auditorium, Fourth Floor

5:30pm
Performance: Sarah Stengle and Rebecca Kelly, "Between the Letters"
Third Floor Gallery

6:00-8:00pm
Witness: Beyond Sensationalism
Poetry and fiction readings and topic discussion, moderated by Nora Luongo
Auditorium, Fourth Floor

Exhibition and programs are free and open to the public.

I didn't know there was an auditorium on NPL's fourth floor. All the programs I have attended heretofore have been in Centennial Hall and the galleries around the atrium on the second and third floors. Good. I'll see another part of the building when I go.

I couldn't get all of either building in this foto (I don't have a wide-angle lens, and my camera does not accommodate changeable lenses), by means of which I wanted to show the spatial relationship between NPL and 1 Washington Park, which is now not just an office building but also the Newark Campus of the Rutgers Business School. (Did you notice that the adjective derived from "space" is spelled "spatial". This is the kind of thing that made me a spelling reformer.)

I chanced across the Project's director, Nick Kline, a slender, amiable man, setting up the exhibit on October 7th, when I emerged from the first American Sign Language class of the season on the third floor of the Newark Public Library. I took my usual two fotos (one with flash, one without, to play safe) of one glass case, and looked at another. But I had had very little sleep and had just emerged from something new to me, so was not inclined to deal with anything else complicated that day. (Hands do not naturally take the forms employed in the sign-language alphabet, tho some of the word signs are very easy.) As it happens, I decided that I cannot attend a class at 11:00am Downtown, because I can't park my car (free) anywhere near, so have to take public transportation and walk almost 3/4 of a mile each way. That means I'd have to commute some two hours to attend an hour-and-a-half class, so I emailed a note that I can't continue to attend that (free) class. If the class were held from, say, 6:30-8:00pm, I could drive, which would take only about 50 minutes round-trip, and I could accomplish other things on the way home.
+
In any case, I was in no state of mind to deal with anything as complicated as this Project would seem to be. This is the one glass case I did fotograf.

Here is some of the description of the Project from the press release.

Exhibit and Special Program to Address the Nature and Impact of Psychological Trauma During Domestic Violence Awareness Month * * *

The Project is an artwork of Nick Kline, a fine artist based in New York City [and a "fine art photographer and professor at Rutgers University-Newark"], done in collaboration with project partner Witness Justice, and other artists, survivors, students and community organizations. In the GlassBook Project, survivors meet with college students to share their trauma experience and explain how certain behaviors helped them cope. These behaviors (frequently labeled as symptoms of mental or other illness) are often a means of survival and resilience. ...students are guided to shift perspective from "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?" and away from victim blaming, making books out of glass that reflect the survivor's point of view. The books have been exhibited all over the United States including Paramount Theater in Hollywood and the Museum of American Glass. The award-winning GlassBook Project has been hailed as one of the top mental health innovations in the country, as it facilitates meaningful social change for survivors and build[s] community understanding of the nature and impact of trauma.* * *

The NPL exhibit ... features a site-specific installation .... Seven large-scale photomontages of the glass books stretch across large wall mounted display cases, creating what the artist refers to as "glimpses that reflect on connectedness." Wrapping around the atrium, the images, along with the books themselves and compelling wall text, are intended to demonstrate the innovation and healing that can come from safe places where people share their stories to active listeners.

The existing three collections on view include: "Self Injury," "After Domestic Violence: Changed Relationships," and an advocacy effort titled "Violated: Domestic Violence And Child Abuse Victim Rights." These books were created in 2009 and 2010 by students at Rutgers University-Newark, Department of Arts, Culture and Media.

Sounds very heavy, doesn't it, and probably depressing. But the stuffed animals in the case above and other things I noticed in my few minutes looking around indicate that the show is not wholly grim. I'll see Thursday.

I saw tonite something new atop 1 Washington Park, a biz-school sign on the roof.