Always Lost Returns: TMCC Hawthorne VFW Post to Display Exhibit
Always Lost Returns: TMCC Hawthorne VFW Post to Display Exhibit
Sep 9, 2021
![‘Always Lost’ Returns: TMCC, Hawthorne VFW Post to Display Exhibit](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Always-Lost-viewer-copy-scaled.jpg)
‘Always Lost’ Returns: TMCC, Hawthorne VFW Post to Display Exhibit
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Sandy Hannah touches the photo of a man she knows who died while serving our country. ALWAYS LOST: A Meditation on War has previously been on display on the second floor of the Legislative Building in Carson City.
쿪 is pleased to announce that Always Lost: A Meditation on War
is once again on display thanks to collaboration between 쿪 and the Veterans Resource
Center at Truckee Meadows Community College and VFW Post 2313 in Hawthorne.
This is the first time the exhibition has been available to the public since 2016.
Always Lost: A Meditation on War is dedicated to U.S. military service members in
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who gave their lives and to those who made it home.
The public can view the exhibition at TMCC between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Main Gallery
in the Red Mountain Building (Room 107). The exhibition also can be viewed at the
VFW Post 2313 Hall located at 890 A St. The hall is open from 5 to 8 p.m. For more
information or to make an appointment in Hawthorne, call 775-233-3801.
The exhibition, which began as a creative writing class project at 쿪s Carson City
campus in 2009, had been previously displayed at more than 50 venues across the nation.
In fall 2008, two 쿪 professors decried the impersonal nature of the Iraq/Afghanistan
wars, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Professors Don Carlson
and Marilee Swirczek envisioned a photography and literary exhibition to personalize
the wars. It included original literary work by students, veterans and their families,
and other Nevada writers. The project also included the Wall of the Dead, individual
photographs with names of U.S. military service members who perished in the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars from Sept. 11, 2001-14.
The Dallas Morning News granted permission to use their 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning
Iraq War combat photographs as part of the exhibition. Photographs and profiles of
three 쿪 student veterans remind us of the thousands of service members returning
home from war, and original poetry by Army SPC Noah C. Pierce, who died by suicide
after serving two tours in Iraq, shines a light on the epidemic of veteran suicide.
Throughout the years, the Wall of the Dead continued to grow. When Always Lost made
its debut, there were approximately 4,000 faces and names on the Wall. Today, there
are nearly 7,000.
During its seven years of travel, Always Lost was displayed at colleges, universities,
libraries, veterans organizations and community centers across the nation. The Minnesota
Humanities Center sponsored an 18-month statewide tour of the exhibit as part of their
Veterans Voices program, and a second copy of the exhibition traveled across Nevada
as an official NV150 Sesquicentennial exhibit on a tour sponsored by the Nevada Department
of Veterans Services.
Always Lost: A Meditation on War from 2008-16 had been funded and maintained through
grants from the Nevada Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs
and the National Endowment for the Arts, and Nevada Humanities, along with generous
donations from organizations and individuals. This support made the traveling exhibition
possible.