Partners in Arts Participation

The bells that were made have taken on a life of their own. Every veteran bellmaker has his or her own story, like this one, from a spouse: It's hard to describe the pride and confidence and joy my spouse has been filled with since finishing the bell casting project. He takes great pride bringing it to events and articulating the process of making the bell and the mission of Vets for Peace. He was so shy, but his public speaking skills are ringing out like his bell. Our bell ringing for peace happens at many events here, not just November 11, and now at least one of the veteran made bells goes, with mention of the Arts Board grant and the process. The bells will go to our national convention in August to ring out the beginning. When we were at Festival of Nations, many students were English Second Language, often from war-torn countries. They expressed joy that veterans were working for peace, and there was often talk of We could do a project like that at school. All this, and I work part-time for Plymouth Church, running a program for adults with mental illness (not necessarily veterans, but mental health issues for veterans duly noted). Several times, as we worked on the bells, artists we encountered expressed interest in creating art experiences for this population. This is all narrative/anecdotal evaluation, but we experienced a great rippling out of excitement and inspiration from just making it all happen. Project was designed to give a small group of veterans the opportunity to create their own bell, an iconic artifact that historically has rung out for peace, but perhaps more often been melted into weapons for use in war-making. This is healing on so many levels. The grant called for a closing program, which we staged at Plymouth Church on March 20, World Storytelling Day. 150 people came, maybe 1.0 from Plymouth, One minister sent a note, Thank you so much for bringing this amazing program to Plymouth. It was so powerful and moving. We thought that wonderful night was the end, but then the Festival of Nations (also supported by Arts and Heritage Fund) heard about us and asked us to be there with a Peace Bells exhibit and bell ringing and stories on the stage each hour. There seems to be a contagious excitement about this that just won't stop. Two of our veteran belimakers are visual artists, but most are not. I'm a veteran and a storyteller, but normally would not have opted to do something like this. I did it because of what it's about, and I'm amazed at how many non-artistic types I run into who say, I'd like to make a bell like that.