FOOTSTEPS: A Global Response

by Stella Meades
with the assistance of hundreds

March 7th - April 26, 2008

In 1995 artist Stella Meades received a UNICEF newsletter about war affected children. It stated that in the previous 10 years 2,000,000 children had been killed and 4,000,000 disabled due to war. The numbers staggered her.

As a response she made 1001 hand-built, child-sized clay shoes, each representing 6,000 children. The exhibition Footnote was born.

Eventually Stella wanted to use the shoes to express hope. She asked people who were interested to take a shoe and make their own artistic additions to, in a symbolic way, represent comfort and healing for the children represented by the shoe. FOOTSTEPS was born.

Over 700 hundred people responded from across Canada and from several other countries. A showing of some of the shoes has taken place in Victoria. A showing has been organized in Winnipeg due to the incredible Manitoba response orchestrated by Winnipegger Connie Cohen.

Viewers are asked to consider making donations to MCC. Donated funds will go to support programs for war affected children in northern Uganda.

To find out about an exciting, moving and inspirational show planned for 2008 go to: http://www.globalshoeproject.page.tl/

Girls of Stella Matutina

photographs of hope

Girls of Stella Matutina is a series of portraits of students attending Stella Matutina Girls’ Secondary School in northern Uganda. It was established by the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gulu as a refuge of learning, healing, order and hope for war affected girls.

The founders were moved by the plight of the girl child in northern Uganda, an area of the country that has been under the destabilizing influence of a rebel-led insurrection for the past 17 years, causing hundreds of thousands of people to live in internally displaced camps and in fear of their lives.

Dean Peachey’s photos, taken on Valentines Day 2008, celebrate the resilience, strength and hope found in their subjects. Donations will go towards MCC’s work supporting Stella Matutina

For more information see our newsletter: CANVASs V. XI, #2 [110 KB PDF file - Help with PDF files]

Come visit our Gallery in the Mennonite Heritage Centre
600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 0M4
(On the South Campus of the Canadian Mennonite University)
(204) 888-6781
Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM; Saturday, noon – 5 PM