A new movement was born out of a Tweet from a colleague that I have never met. The Empty Desk Project is the unofficial working name and our hashtag is #NoMoreEmptyDesks. We have a name, a plan to begin, and a vision for what we want to accomplish - all from a Tweet. Here is the message that began this new movement:
Hi Robin, I enjoy your Twitter presence highlighting school health. I like Rutgers University’s placement of empty purple chairs around campus to promote intimate partner/ domestic violence awareness. I think brightly colored children’s desks would highlight our lost children. I think the sight of empty brightly colored desks would be evocative, raising awareness about gun violence. I thought of you and your campaign and wanted to share. -Kendrea Todt
I read and re-read Kendrea's message and my mind jumped to involving students in painting desks to symbolize students who have been lost to gun violence. I thought of an art installation I saw Bloomington, Indiana of "painted brains" to bring awareness to the impact of stroke. Many of you may have seen "painted cows" that have been on display in cities across the country and internationally. The Empty Desk Project was born with a similar intention, public displays of student-painted desks symbolizing children lost to gun violence.
My creative wheels were spinning wildly as I envisioned students painting desks as part of art classes to bring awareness to community and school gun violence. The image of empty desks, painted by students, on display as a public art awareness campaign was as vivid as if they were right in front of me. I immediately reached out to my art teacher colleague on Facebook. Within minutes, she was not only on board but had already added to the vision of expanding this campaign across the school district via her network of art educators.
There are school basements filled with unused desks across the country. Imagine if each school painted their vision of #NoMoreEmptyDesks, created by students as a statement about the impact of gun violence. How many student desks are left empty as a result of gun violence? The numbers are staggering...
More than 26,000 children and teens have been killed in gun violence since 1999 - retrieved from March 23, 2018 Washington Post article.
To read the rest of the post, click here: The Empty Desk Project
This is the first in a series of blog posts as The Empty Desk Project is launched this September in a Camden, New Jersey high school. Stay tuned for updates and please reach out if you or someone you may know is interested in participating. Let’s grow this awareness campaign to make sure there are #NoMoreEmptyDesks!
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