Living On exhibit features Holocaust survivors’ portraits at Renaissance Center Jan. 25-April 29

Release Date: 12/19/2006. Expired: 4/29/2007

Look into the eyes that witnessed one of the most horrific times in history when The Renaissance Center hosts Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators Jan. 25-April 29.

Commissioned by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, Living On is a traveling exhibition and documentary project that includes black and white photographic portraits of survivors of the Holocaust and American soldiers who helped liberate the Nazi concentration camps, all of whom now live in Tennessee.

The portraits and their accompanying narratives will be displayed in the Visual Arts Gallery, North Wing Gallery and East Wing Gallery at The Renaissance Center. An opening reception for the exhibit will be 6-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, in conjunction with the Mind Enriching Theatre series production of Auschwitz Lullaby, a powerful play based on actual events from the diaries of inmates in a concentration camp.

“This group of 70 individuals is unique, having lived through one of the most catastrophic periods in history,” said Armon Means, curator for The Renaissance Center. “They are witnesses to events that defied human imagination, then and now. Their stories, faces and voices provide separate testimony into how the unthinkable happened and how its consequences created a lasting impact that has relevance today. This exhibition gives a voice to the storytellers whose ability to testify may soon be lost to age and frailty. It also offers visitors the opportunity to view fellow Tennesseans who, through photographs and biographical sketches, share their personal stories of survival. Lastly it stands as a powerful testament to human resiliency in spite of the efforts to eliminate the very faces and voices it captures.”

Living On was commissioned as the centerpiece of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission’s 20^th anniversary in 2004.

This exhibition of black and white photographs by Robert Heller includes 70 individuals who live in different parts of the state of Tennessee. All of them either survived the Holocaust in Europe or served in the U.S. Armed Forces at the time of liberation or in its aftermath. They are witnesses to a powerful moment in the history of civilization and their testimonies are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. They have come forward to share their experiences in hopes that history will never repeat itself. Their brief biographical narratives accompany the portraits.

Dawn Weiss Montgomery accompanied Heller on several journeys across the state in search of survivors. Montgomery interviewed each subject about his or her life before, during and after World War II. Following the interviews, Heller, who teaches photojournalism and graphic design at the University of Tennessee, photographed each subject. Listening to the interviews was “emotionally demanding and exhausting, but rewarding,” Heller said, as the words and expressions fused into an image of the kind of portrait he wanted for each individual.

An original documentary that follows the Tennessee Holocaust Commission as it interviewed survivors and liberators called Living On: Tennesseans Remembering the Holocaust is available through Nashville Public Television. The one-hour film was produced by Will Pedigo and received three Emmy nominations.

THC also has created a full day teaching seminar that complements the exhibition.

“THC was challenged by the question of ‘How does one come face to face with history,’ because the number of survivors who settled in Tennessee was small and geographic distance was great,” said THC chairman Felicia Anchor. “The Living On project is our way of perpetuating face-to-face contact with survivors and liberators who were there and saw it all. The faces we see in the exhibit are a portal to lost lives, deep pain and sometimes miracles. When the eyewitnesses can no longer tell their stories, the exhibit will continue to serve as their voices in small towns and cities throughout Tennessee for generations to come.”

The Renaissance Center’s galleries are open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Admission to the galleries and opening reception is free. For more information on the Living On exhibition at The Renaissance Center, contact Means at (615) 740-5545 or armon.means@rcenter.org, or visit the center’s website at www.rcenter.org.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Visual Arts Gallery page for more about the gallery.

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