Public invited to take part in 'One Million Bones' project

The VCMS student-sculpted bones from the One Million Bones project are on display at the Vernon Community Arts Center. Members of the public are invited to add to the collection before the exhibit heads to the nation's capital. Photo by Steve Smith.

Hand-crafted, clay facsimiles of human bones cover most of the floor in an installation room at the Vernon Community Arts Center. The hundreds of femurs, ribs and radii were sculpted by students at Vernon Center Middle School, as part of a project that began in November, and the public is invited to contribute and take part in the next step of the nationwide project.

The students' art-as-activism lesson began when social studies teacher Keith Miller led an assembly, explaining what genocide is, and where it is taking place in the world. He also introduced them to the One Million Bones project, which is helping to raise awareness as well as funds to aid families of victims of genocide in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, via the Bezos Family Foundation to CARE. Subsequent student-led art workshops took place after the presentation, in which the student body was able to contribute sculptures.

On Sunday, Feb.24 (the event was originally supposed to take place Feb. 10, but was delayed due to the blizzard), from 1 to 2:30 p.m., the eighth-grade EPOCH Art students from VCMS, along with their art teacher Sherri Nevins, will be hosting a One Million Bones Workshop at the VCAC, in which members of the public can learn more about the effort, as well as roll up their sleeves and create their own bone.

After a stay at the VCAC, the entire project will move to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to join with others from across the country. The goal is to place one million of the sculptures on the lawn at the mall, in a culmination of the worldwide effort. The installation is expected to be complete in June.

“We encourage any who are interested to stop by for an introduction to the world-wide project and join a global community to end genocide by creating a bone,” said VCAC Director Joan Sonnanburg, via a press release.

For more information, visit www.vernonarts.org or www.onemillionbones.org.