Memorial honors victims of 'gun violence epidemic' in US
Recently, a memorial was opened at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, called the 'Gun Violence Memorial Project', to honor Americans who have lost their lives to gun violence.
Four houses displaying personal items such as childhood photos and toys in honor of the victims. The houses are made of 700 glass bricks; a reference to the average number of 700 deaths from gun violence every week in the US.
The exhibitions developer at the National Building Museum, Caitlin Bristol, said, that the project aims to "memorialize this crisis of gun violence that we're facing in our country."
When explaining the project, Bristol noted that "many of these bricks contain personal items that were donated by the families of these gun violence victims."
The Gun Violence Memorial Project aims to "celebrate and honor the individual stories, while also being able to physically represent the enormity of this epidemic," said project manager, Jha D. Williams, at a nonprofit architecture firm (MASS Design Group) that collaborated with artist Hank Willis Thomas on the memorial.
"Each house contains 700 bricks. And many of these bricks contain personal items that were donated by the families of these gun violence victims. And 700 is significant because that number represents the average number of Americans lost to gun violence per week."