‘War is Always With Us’ Opens in Edgewood College Gallery

Madison, Wis. (August 25, 2015) – War is Always With Us, an exhibition of paintings by David Byrd, paintings and prints by Shawn Ganther, and prints from Yvette Pino’s Veteran Print Project, opens  Wednesday, August 26, at the Edgewood College Gallery. The exhibition runs through Sunday, October 4.

Focusing on the effects of war and the efforts of current veterans to help their peers through art, this exhibition showcases the paintings of David Byrd (1926-2014), who worked for 30 years as a night orderly in the psychiatric ward in a Veterans Administration Medical Hospital in Montrose, New York. Veterans Shawn Ganther and Yvette Pino are both active in the veteran artist movement and have exhibited in the Veteran Artists Program at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  Pino is founder of the Veteran Print Project which pairs veterans and artists; the veterans tell their stories to the artists who create prints to reflect the stories back. Ganther will exhibit recent paintings and prints; Pino will present a portfolio of works created by the Veteran Print Project in collaboration with the Student Veteran Writers from UW-Stevens Point.

An accompanying symposium, Veterans, Art & Mental Health will be held on Friday afternoon, September 18, from 2:00-4:30 pm in The Stream, on the Edgewood College campus. At that event, Shawn Ganther and Yvette Pino will outline their experiences and efforts to help other veterans. They will be joined by David Chrisinger, Associate Lecturer in History at UW-Stevens Point. The panel will be moderated by Walter Putrycz, who has become closely affiliated with the David Byrd Estate.

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