Exhibit uses clothing to raise awareness
Published 8:34 am Thursday, December 1, 2011
These shirts are among a collection of 29 that are a part of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women's Clothesline Project. The shirts display art and memories in dedication of their former owners, who each died as a result of domestic violence within the last year. - Matt Peterson/matt.peterson@austindailyherald.com
Twenty-nine shirts hang in downtown Austin’s Bank Building, decorated with pictures and I love yous — dedicated to the people who once wore them but died as victims of domestic violence in the past year.
The display is part of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women’s Clothesline Project, which the Austin Zonta Club is sponsoring. As an advocate for women and children in the community, the Zonta Club found the project a good way to raise awareness about domestic violence locally.
“That’s why we wanted to get involved,” said longtime Zonta member Renee Anderson. “Because there’s so much violence in Austin.”
Members of the Zonta Club and Crime Victims Resource Center Director Tori Miller, in gray, gathered at the Bank Building in downtown Austin on Wednesday to talk about the Clothesline Project. The project, which has 29 shirts of people who have died in the last year, is an effort to raise awareness about domestic violence. The display opens to the public from Thursday through Saturday. -Matt Peterson/matt.peterson@austindailyherald.com
Tori Miller, director of the Crime Victims Resource Center at Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin, said her office deals with roughly 500 crimes each year, 200 or more of which are domestic violence related.
“I think awareness is always good,” she said. “I think around here, people have a hard time believing violence in the family is actually happening.”
Miller remembers when the Clothesline Project, which started in 1992, came to Austin in 1998. However, the project has changed since then, as victims’ family members now decorate the shirts instead of coalition members. The change shows just how hard some of the families have been hit. Most of the victims are women, but some are children and men. Victims range from infants to seniors.
Because domestic violence is widespread, even in Mower County, the Crime Victims Resource Center offers a 24-hour hotline. It’s confidential, so victims can work through his or her problems before consulting legal action. The service also offers domestic violence victims shelter and ways to keep perpetrators away.
“Our goal is to support advocacy and safety for the people that we work with,” Miller said.
The Clothesline project is open to the public from 1 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Those who attend can also donate personal care items and food to the Zonta Club, which will be given to the American Red Cross and Salvation Army.
