The Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College is hosting a pair of new exhibits from March 6 through May 9. “One World” is colorful, children’s art, games, puzzles and music in the QHC Gallery, while the other, located in the adjacent Boyd Cultural Arts Center lobby, features a “Dinner Party” installation honoring notable Quaker women.
An opening reception with refreshments was held on March 6. The show’s normal gallery hours are weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by special appointment arranged by QHC Director Tanya Maus.
“One World” features children’s art from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and serves as a call to unity and global peace. Drawn from the Wilmington College Peace Resource Center’s internationally acclaimed archives, the artwork comes from six schools in and around Hiroshima. The spark for the beautiful works was the Hiroshima Mayors for Peace: Peace Art Exhibition Contest from the late 1990s. in which children ages six to 12 years old were invited to create art in response to the slogans represented on the gallery walls.
“The young artists responded joyfully with creativity, vibrant color and an energy that speaks to hopes for a world unified and at peace,” Maus said, noting that children are encouraged to attend, paint on the walls and enjoy games, puzzles and music.
Mayors for Peace was founded in 1982 by Hiroshima Mayor Takeshi Araki at the 2nd United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held at the UN in New York City. The mayor challenged “cities throughout the world to transcend national borders and join in solidarity to work together to press for nuclear abolition.”
Currently, 8,472 cities from 166 countries and regions throughout the world have joined as members of Mayors for Peace with the shared mission of “contributing to the attainment of lasting world peace by arousing concern among citizens of the world for the total abolition of nuclear weapons through close solidarity among member cities, as well as by striving to solve vital problems for the human race, such as starvation and poverty, the plight of refugees, human rights abuses and environmental degradation.”
This exhibit is a precursor to the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Peace Resource Center this coming fall.