Inver Hills Fine Art Gallery exhibit • November 3 thru November 30, 2015
Inver Hills Community College hosted the opening reception for the Transfer of Memory Exhibit in the Inver Hills Art Gallery and Fine Arts building lobby Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015. Guest speakers included David Sherman, exhibit photographer, Lili Chester, exhibit writer, Laura Zelle, JCRC director of Holocaust education and Ann Deiman-Thornton, Inver Hills dean of liberal arts.
Stan Rothrock, Inver Hills music faculty, performed a composition by Dutch composer, Leo Smit, who perished with his wife in the Sobibor extermination camp during the Holocaust. Vicky Knickerbocker, humanities faculty, and students from her Holocaust & Genocide Studies in Film attended the reception and toured the exhibit.
Upcoming Transfer of Memory events at the college include a showing of the Holocaust film, In the Shadow of the Acropolis, and presentations by Holocaust survivors, Judith Miesel and Manny Gabler. See below for event details.
View Transfer of Memory Opening Reception photo album by visiting:
Inver Hills on Flickr
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) is proud to partner with Inver Hills Community College to present Transfer of Memory, a photo exhibit illustrating Holocaust survivors living in Minnesota—in their homes in full color. Each individual is a story of survival during exceedingly difficult circumstances, yet as a collection these images focus on life and hope. From Europe to Minnesota, it was here they fashioned their dreams, their futures and their families. Their lives are a constant reminder of the value of freedom and the enduring human spirit.
Photographer David Sherman and writer Lili Chester, in partnership with Laura Zelle and Susie Greenberg from the JCRC, created this photography exhibit.
“The urgency for this project is so clear,” said David Sherman. “Our survivor community is aged and aging. The number of living Holocaust survivors is becoming fewer and fewer. It is important for me to ensure that survivors are remembered in a respectful and beautiful way—by face, by name and by story.
Today, we stand at a critical time in regard to the Holocaust. Almost 70 years since the end of the war, we are in the midst of a ‘transfer of memory.’ The witness to the horrors, hardships and brutalities of the Holocaust is shifting from those who saw and survived to a retelling of their testimony. We are shifting our focus from the power and reliability of sight and personal experience to the trustworthiness and importance of hearing.”
WHAT: Transfer of Memory Exhibit
WHEN: November 3 thru November 30, 2015
WHERE: Inver Hills Art Gallery
Fine Arts Building
Inver Hills Community College
2500 East 80th Street
Inver Grove Heights, MN
“This exhibit has enabled the JCRC’s Holocaust Education program to bring lessons of the Shoah (Holocaust) to communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota who otherwise might not receive firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors,” added Steve Hunegs, executive director of the JCRC.
The exhibit features 47 portraits of survivors living—or who lived—in Minnesota. The color images depict the survivors as living full and fulfilled lives—full of life and vitality—not defined by victimhood. Survivors were photographed in their homes; everyone was interviewed and videotaped prior to making their portrait. Lili Chester’s text, distilled from the survivor interviews, accompanies each portrait and provides background and a short history in the survivors’ own words.
“It is my hope and prayer that these images add an important visual proof to accompany the oral testimony,” Sherman said.
Curated by Laura Zelle and Susie Greenberg, the exhibit is a collaboration between David Sherman, Lili Chester, and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Learn more by visiting:
Transfer of Memory
Exhibit Schedule
Film Showing: In the Shadow of the Acropolis
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015
6:30–8 p.m.
Discussion after the film with Laura Zelle
Heritage Hall Room 203
Survivor Speaker: Judith Miesel
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015
6:30–8 p.m.
Heritage Hall Room 203
Note: Attendees will watch the film, TAK FOR ALT: The Survival of the Human Spirit, at 6:30 p.m. before Q&A with Judith.
Survivor Speaker: Manny Gabler
Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015
6:30–8 p.m.
Liberal Arts Building Room 129
Inver Hills Art Gallery Hours
Monday and Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: noon to 5 p.m.
For more information about Transfer of Memory at the Inver Hills Art Gallery, contact:
Joel Starkey
Gallery Curator and Coordinator
651-450-3101
Laura Zelle
JCRC Director of Holocaust Education
612-338-7816
Vicky Knickerbocker
Sociology, Humanities and Human Services Instructor
651-450-3745
