Exhibit advocates nuclear disarmament

Art and activism intersect at a new exhibit in the Fox Art Gallery.

“From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit” premiered on Thursday in Claudia Cohen Hall and will continue to be on display every weekday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Oct. 29. It is free and open to the public.

The exhibit focuses on global human security and advocates especially for the disarmament of nuclear weapons. The display has been showcased in 24 different countries, in over 200 venues, including the Office of the United Nations. This is its first trip to Philadelphia.

The exhibit is sponsored by Soka Gakkai International, a nonsectarian public awareness activism group dedicated to promoting peace through the teachings of Buddhism. The exhibit was brought to Penn by SGI Youth Ambassadors College sophomore Desmond Wee and Sarah Gish-Kraus, an admin coordinator in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Department.

The showcase is divided into four sections, one for each of the four rooms of the gallery. There are 36 panels of photographs, graphs, statistics and quotes promoting peace treaties and other ways to create a safer world without nuclear weapons.

Thursday’s opening reception included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks by the exhibit’s co-sponsors, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Project for Nuclear Awareness and the Christian Association at Penn. University Chaplain Chaz Howard and SGI representative David Goodman also expressed their hopes for activists to bring about a nuclear-free world.

“We must have a will to expand the movement,” Goodman said. “Each of us plays a vital role in making the world free of nuclear power. The answer lies within this room and will then spread beyond these walls.”

Wee, the leader of World Peace Buddhists at Penn, has a deep personal interest in environmentalism and firmly believes in the eradication of nuclear power. He first saw the SGI exhibit in his home country of Malaysia.

“The issue of nuclear energy is so, so important,” he said. “Hopefully this exhibit will not just raise awareness, but also empower the Penn community to take action. We humans created this problem, so we humans should be able to solve it.”

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