When Lisa Dell'Anno (above left) from the Diablo Valley chapter of Moms Demand Action learned about the Concord Art Association from a podcast, she went into action herself. She went looking for a local spot to display 800 small, handmade paper origami boxes that are part of a national community effort to raise awareness about gun violence in the US - the Soul Box Project - and she discovered our little downtown gallery.
CAA and the aRt Cottage came together and we are honored to host this small but mighty exhibit in one of our gallery rooms during the month of July. Several CAA members, including Patti St. Denis (above right) and Jennifer Granat (center), came together to create a wonderful display.
Each 3" square box represents one American life lost to gun violence - homicide, suicide or accidental. Statistics show that an average of 100 people die from guns every day in this country. This community art project is helping people grasp the gravity of that number in a visual way.
The Soul Box exhibit runs July 6th through July 22nd in the back gallery. The collection will travel from here to Portland for the rest of the summer, then on to Washington DC to be part of a huge national display of more than 200,000 Soul Boxes in the fall.
