After the Wars Stories and Images of America’s Combat Veterans Running -April 18 - May 30, 2013 at Unitarian Universalist Church West Art Gallery

After The Wars – Stories and Images of America’s Combat Veterans, is a multimedia documentary being shown in the Community Room Art Gallery at Unitarian Universalist Church West, that is guaranteed to move and surprise you. The exhibit consists of photographs and recorded interviews with ten combat veterans of wars from WWII to Afghanistan. The exhibition was created by Paul Calhoun and his son, Ben. Paul Calhoun is a documentary photographer and an art faculty member at Mt. Mary College. Ben Calhoun is a producer and a contributor to the PBS series “This American Life.” After the Wars is on view from April 18 through May 30, between and after services on Sundays, at the artists’ reception, or by arrangement. UUCW is located on the eastern edge of Brookfield at 13001 W. North Ave., minutes west of the North Avenue exit on Highway 45.

Featured in the exhibition is Vietnam veteran Dennis Johnson, a former Army helicopter gunner who saw extensive combat. Dennis deals with his inner turmoil by being politically active and by helping other veterans. Dennis is the Director of Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Services, the recipient of April’s Split the Plate donations. You can meet Dennis and Paul Calhoun at the reception in the Community Room Art Gallery, on Tuesday, April 23 from 6:30 – 8:00 pm.

Paul Calhoun’s photographs have been exhibited and published internationally in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, the Far East and East Europe. In addition, his photographic work has been supported by a number of public and private foundations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the
 Humanities, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the Wisconsin Humanities 
Council.

 Currently he teaches photography at several colleges in the Milwaukee area, and works with at risk teens in Milwaukee as well as in Eastern Europe.

Prior to This American Life, Ben Calhoun was a reporter who contributed to most every major public radio news entity heard in the country—including Radiolab, NPR, the BBC, and Marketplace. Ben worked in WBEZ’s newsroom for eight years, where he reported on politics and did documentary work.

After the Wars was funded by grants from Wisconsin Humanities Council and Chicago Public Radio. The work was featured on WBEZ, the public radio affiliate in Chicago, the Invisible Institute in Chicago, and at the Third Coast Audio Festival. WUWM is broadcasting a new interview with Paul, Ben and Dennis that is airing on April 18th.

The Unitarian Universalist Church West Community Room Gallery champions
local and non-local emerging and established artists, and strives to build community through the visual arts. The gallery also provides a space for exhibiting artwork that grapples with issues of diversity, tolerance, and social justice, plus art that celebrates the planet and the interdependent web of all existence. Unitarian Universalist Church West values diversity and works to create peace and fight oppression.

For more information about Unitarian Universalist Church West see http://www.uucw.org, or contact the church office.