Info source: Domestic Violence Awareness Project – Silent Witness Initiative

The Goal
The Silent Witness National Initiative seeks to promote peace, healing and responsibility in adult relationships. The Initiative’s goal is to reach zero domestic murders by 2010 through successful community-based domestic violence reduction efforts.

How The Initiative Began
In 1990, a group of women artists and writers, alarmed by the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, joined together with several other women’s organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence.

They felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state, something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. They decided to create 26 free-standing, life-sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children–whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were erroneously ruled accidental. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses. Names of the 26 women can be accessed on the Silent Witness National Initiative WebSite.

The Debut
On February 18, 1991, more than 500 women met at a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol with the newly-constructed Witnesses. The women formed a silent procession escorting the figures single file across the street, up the steps, and into the State Capitol Rotunda for public statements and a press conference. The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power and the loss. The Silent Witness Exhibit was officially launched.

The National Initiative
1994 saw the formation of a national initiative dedicated to the elimination of domestic murder, starting with the creation of Silent Witness exhibits in communities across the country. Within one year a total of 800 Silent Witnesses had been created to represent women who were killed as a result of domestic violence in seventeen states. By October 1997, exhibits had been established in all 50 states.

To find out how you can become involved, please contact:

The Silent Witness National Initiative
20 Second St., Suite 1101
Minneapolis, MN 55413
Telephone (612) 377-6629
Fax (612) 374-3956
E-mail info@silentwitness.net

Click the flier to download it [PDF] or CLICK HERE

Information from the Silent Witness National Initiative web site

Info source: Domestic Violence Awareness Project – Clotheslines Project…

The Clothesline Project is a visual display that bears witness to the violence against women and children. The Clothesline Project comprises T-shirts designed by survivors of abuse and those who have lost loved ones to it. The shirts are hung on a clothesline display to:

  • Honor survivors and memorialize victims
  • Help with the healing process for survivors and people who have lost a loved one to violence
  • Educate, document, and raise society’s awareness of about the crimes of violence against women and children

What the Shirts Represent

Shirts that hang on The Clothesline represent a wide spectrum of abuse. Although each shirt is unique, a common color coding is generally used to represent the different dimensions of violence against women and children:

  • WHITE for women and children who have died as a result of domestic violence
  • YELLOW or BEIGE for women and children who have been battered or assaulted
  • RED, PINK or ORANGE for women and children who have been raped or sexually assaulted
  • BLUE or GREEN for women and children survivors of incest
  • PURPLE or LAVENDER for women and children attacked because of their sexual orientation/identification

The History of the Project
The Clothesline Project originated with 31 shirts in Hyannis, MA, in 1990 through the Cape Cod Women’s Agenda. A small group of women – many of whom had experienced violence in their own lives – designed the visual monument to help transform staggering statistics about violence against women and children into a powerful educational and healing tool.

They decided to use a clothesline after discussing how many women in close-knit neighborhoods have traditionally exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging laundry out to dry.

The Clothesline Project breaks the silence about violence against women and children by giving a voice to survivors and victims. Since 1990, hundreds of Clothesline Projects have emerged nationwide and abroad, resulting in tens of thousands of shirt designs.

To find out more information, contact:

The Clothesline Project
P.O. Box 654
Brewster, MA 02631
Email clotheslineproject@verizon.net

Information taken from The Clothesline Project Overview (1994) Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence/National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

Click flier to download [PDF] or CLICK HERE