Public Art

SidebarTHE SPECIAL PEACE CORPS
Learn about the Special Peace Corps
at The Life Experience School
which is under the care of the
Peace Abbey Foundation.

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Ever wondered where the seeds of peace activism of the Peace Abbey and Life Experience School took root around the world, blossoming for generations to come? See below.

Music photo clips of the former Peace Abbey campus by Joan Hill.

Peace memorials and museums are a relatively new idea. War, on the other hand, has enjoyed glorification through monuments, literature, art, and war memorials and museums for centuries. The motivation for creating statuary and monuments to peace and non-violence is the faith that making people aware of the cost of war is tantamount to educating them for peace.

The second wave of peace memorials and museums sprung up after the destructive years of World War II. Appropriately, the majority of these memorials were established in Japan, where a keen understanding of the fatal consequences of nuclear warfare was realized. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were centers of staunch opposition to nuclear warfare that spread throughout the world.

Today, peace memorials can be found in every continent. Though war still lingers, there is hope to be found in the growth of the peace memorial and museum movement. Efforts aimed at furthering the cause of peace are truly an incremental enterprise. The greater the presence of peace memorials and museums, the more palpable the message of peace is for the general public.

Tehran Peace Museum

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

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Friends (Quaker) Meeting at Cambridge

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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Occupy Boston

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The Closing of the American Mind: Occupy Boston

by VIJAY PRASHAD

That Strange Brown Man, Gandhi Gandhi is standing in the bustle of Occupy Boston. The wry smile, the flapping ears, and the walking stick in hand. A sign flags near his knees, “The world holds enough for everyone’s NEED, but not enough for everyone’s GREED.” People rush past him, walking on the wooden planks that work as the walkways between tents in Dewey Square. These people are temporary heroes, the people who have walked away from their ordinary lives to seek shelter together in the public square. Some of these people are happy, pleased to be together and to model a different social life. Others are already cold, already a bit dispirited. The days have begun to drag on. The novelty will wear off. It is precisely to ward off a drop in morale that Gandhi warned his fellow activists, “If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm” (Young India, June 17, 1926).

Quakers from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts, brought the statue to the site. They had made it as a gift to Goldman Sachs. On October 28, 2010, the Abbey workers and children from the Life Experience School came down to the Goldman office on High Street, not far from Dewey Square. They wanted to install their statue of Gandhi as a beacon against Greed. Goldman’s people declined the offer, so Gandhi was then chained to the doors of the building. He didn’t last long, went back to the Abbey, and then, when Occupy Boston started, came to his place amongst the protestors.

University of Massachusetts at Boston

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Multi-Faith Prayer Altar

Commissioned altar with the words: Always Pray – Pray all Ways with Earth design and the names of the 12 major religions carved into each of the 12 sides of the base of the altar. Designed by Lewis Randa. A replica was created by Wellesley College, Multi-faith Chapel.
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The Peacemakers Table at the Peace Abbey / Life Experience School where the students met each morning for forty years before gifting it to UMASS Boston for its new peace room.

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The Peacemakers Table at UMASS Boston

 

Peace Pilgrim

From 1953 to 1981 a silver hairimages3ed woman calling herself only “Peace Pilgrim” walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She vowed to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.” In the course of her 28 year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America. Her message was both simple and primages3ofound. It continues to inspire people all over the world.

Expressing her ideas about peace, Peace Pilgrim referred to herself only as “Peace Pilgrim.” Peace Pilgrim’s only possessions were the clothes on her back and the few items she carried in the pockets of her blue tunic which read “Peace Pilgrim” on the front and “25,000 Miles on foot for peace” on the back. She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and woimages3uld not even ask for food or shelter. When she began her pilgrimage she had taken a vow to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.”

 

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DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS

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DEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS

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Mother Teresa statue commissioned following Mother Teresa’s visit to the Life Experience School in 1988 was re-dedicated on May 9. 2014 at St. Mary’s Church in Dedham, MA. The presentation was led by Mary O’Connor and Fr. William Kelly.

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TIJUANA, MEXICO

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A statue of Mother Teresa was presented to Courage of Conscience Award recipient Mother Antonia outside of La Masa Prison in Tijuana, Mexico. (Underwritten by Edward Coppola.)

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SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
Norte Dame University

teresa_of_calcutta__ace_Bronze statue of Mother Teresa at shrine n the campus of Notre Dame University. (Underwritten by Edward Coppola.)

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SHERBORN, MASSACHUSETTS

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Two North Main Street, Sherborn, Massachusetts

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EMILY THE COW & ANIMAL RIGHTS MEMORIAL

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Emily the Cow with the Randa family in her new barn. (Barn construction underwritten by Ellen and Rob Little.)

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Bronze statue of Emily the Cow was dedicated on Earth Day 2005 behind the statue of Gandhi.

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Order your copy of The Story of Emily the Cow.
All proceeds go for the care of Emily’s grave and the Animal Rights Memorial.

PEACE SEEDS ROSARY OF THE MAJOR RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD

NEW YORK CITY, NY

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Bust of Gandhi at United Nations, “Sanction for Nonviolence” New York, NY

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EAST SANDWICH, MASSACHUSETTS

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Quaker Artist Edward Hicks revisited the subject of the peaceable kingdom sixty-two times between 1820 and his death in 1849. These paintings are characterized by the depiction of the Natural Bridge in Virginia and the presence of the “branch” or grapevine. The painted frame with lettering also distinguishes these early works.

The Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch was painted during the mid-1820s when the Quaker church was experiencing an internal clash that ultimately resulted in the creation of two sects. In this image, a young rosy-cheeked boy in the left mid-ground leads a group of animals, both predatory and domestic, towards a rushing river. The scene is biblical in nature, but clearly takes place on American soil. The most notable signifier of location is the natural land bridge that was a popular tourist attraction for American and European travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this tiny scene, Hicks has depicted the famous Quaker, William Penn offering his treaty of peace to a group of Native Americans. Each of these elements works in tandem to reinforce Hicks’s message of unity and peace during a period when the Society of Friends was in a state of crisis.

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DES MOINES, IOWA

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Room established to welcome those who are being treated for life-threatening illness or wish to give thanks for the state of their health. (Under the stewardship and care of Gary and Connie Randa.)

 

 

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The Peace Abbey Prayer Book

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WASHINGTON, DC

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STONEWALK

Stonewalk is a project started in 1999 to honor civilian casualties in war and is never ending.

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COVENTRY, ENGLAND

Stonewalk, (US, Ireland, England, Japan, Korea)

The Coventry blitz from the German word Blitzkrieg meaning “lightning war” was a series of bombing raids that took place on the English city of Coventry.
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The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). The most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940.

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Memorial Stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War placed at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, England in 2001. Pulled by Stonewalkers from Liverpool to Coventry where it was placed in perpetuity during a special ceremony at St. Michael’s Cathedral which was bombed during the WW II.

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HIROSHIMA, JAPAN

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Following the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on the city.

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Memorial Stone pulled from Nagasaki to Hiroshima, Japan by Stonewalkers and placed in perpetuity at the Hiroshima World Peace Memorial Cathedral on August 6, 2005, the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing.

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DMZ KOREA

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The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a region on the Korean peninsula that demarcates North Korea from South Korea. Roughly following the 38th parallel, the 150-mile-long DMZ incorporates territory on both sides of the cease-fire line as it existed at the end of the Korean War (1950–53).

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Memorial Stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War created and pulled by Japanese Stonewalkers from the Southern coast of South Korea to the DMZ in 2007. The Stone is placed in perpetuity at the Korean demilitarized zone.

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EL SALVADOR, CENTRAL AMERICA

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Archbishop Oscar Romero is the Patron Saint of the Peace Abbey and inspires our nonviolent efforts to address social injustice.
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Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980 while saying Mass at the Cancer Hospital Chapel at the Hospital of the Divine Providence where he lived in San Salvador. Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980.

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Bust of Oscar Romero presented to the Romero Museum in San Salvador and is placed at the front entrance.

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Romero Bust in front of the Cottage where he lived on the grounds of the Hospital of the Divine Providence, San Salvador.

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University of Iowa faculty participating in presentation of molds at the Romero Museum in San Salvador.

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The Romero Project was started to help generate funds for humanitarian efforts in El Salvador through the creation and circulation of 12″ rubber medallion molds of Monsignor Oscar Romero. These molds, sculpted by Lado Goudjabidze, are given free of charge to schools, hospitals, churches and community centers in villages in El Salvador. Provided with instructions on how to mix and pour inexpensive plaster into the molds to create a beautiful wall hanging, the Romero Project seeks to place in the hands of those who loved the late Archbishop the means to generate additional income for their families, groups or organizations.

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA

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In December 1982 Samantha Smith, a 10-year-old girl from Manchester, Me., wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov to ask if he was going to wage a nuclear war against the U.S.

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PLACEMENT OF PEACE ABBEY PUBLIC ART

(Commissioned Works of Art by Lewis Randa through the artistry of Lado & Shake Goudjabidze.)

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Mohandas K. Gandhi Statue

The Pacifist Memorial, Sherborn, MA

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA

(Proposed location at Dewey Square, Boston, MA)

Mohandas K. Gandhi Bust

United Nations Headquarters, NYC

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts

Emily the Cow Statue

Sacred Cow Animal Rights Memorial, Sherborn, MA

Mother Teresa Statue

Blessed Mother Teresa Church, Dorchester, MA

Women’s Correctional Facility, Framingham, MA

Mother Antonia, Tijuana Correctional Facility, Mexico

Archdiocese of Des Moines, IA St.

Anthony’s Church, Des Moines, IA

Mercy Hospital, Des Moines, IA

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA

St. Mary’s Church Dedham, MA

Monsignor Oscar Romero Bust

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior, El Salvador, CA

Monsignor Romero and Martyrs Center, El Salvador, CA

Hospital of the Divine Providence, (Romero Cottage) El Salvador, CA

The National Oscar Romero Museum, El Salvador, CA

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

John F. Kennedy Bust

JFK Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

Robert F. Kennedy Bust

JFK Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

Samantha Smith Bust

Samantha Smith Peace Center, Moscow, Russia

Pine Hill Elementary School, Sherborn, MA

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

Courage of Conscience Award

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

158 Recipients throughout the World

Barack Obama and Grandmother Bust

Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

Conscientious Objector Memorial Stone

Cambridge Friends Meeting, (Quakers) Cambridge, MA

Victim of Violence Memorial Stone

Pacifist Memorial, Sherborn, MA

Memorial Stone for Conscientious Objectors on CO Hill

Pacifist Memorial, Sherborn, MA

Unknown Civilians Killed in War

Pacifist Memorial, Sherborn, MA

St. Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry, England

Hiroshima, Japan

DMZ Korea (Gift from Hibakusha)

Multi-faith Altar

University of Massachusetts Boston Chapel

GIFTS OR UNDER STEWARDSHIP OF NON-COMMISSIONED ART

Chapel hand-carved wooden crucifix

Walcott Avenue, Des Moines, IA

Madonna and Child

Holy Family Church, Duxbury, MA

Giant Red Wood Tree

Fiske Memorial Library, Wrentham

PEACE ABBEY LIBRARY

University of Massachusetts Boston (Political, Social Justice, Pacifism, Conscientious Objection, Animal Rights)

Boston University School of Theology, Harvard Divinity School, Bethany Prison Ministries (Multi-faith, religious, spirituality)

The above listed gifts were made by The Life Experience School and The Peace Abbey.

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To make an appointment to visit the Peace Abbey Collection, contact UMB Archives at: 617.287.5469 library.archives@umb.edu

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The Peace Abbey permanent exhibit is under construction so call before visiting.

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The pendulum of the Grandfather clock that recipients of the Courage of Conscience Award wound continues to swing in the new Peace Room at the Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston.

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Students and faculty sit at the Peacemakers Table for classes and to study throughout the day.

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The replica of the bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi stands as a symbol of nonviolence and peacemaking in the new Peace Room.

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UMB PEACE GIFT SIGNING CEREMONY JULY 9, 2012

What do you get when you incorporate the Peace Abbey history and holdings into the University of Massachusetts Boston? You get an expression of its long journey for Peace, Social Action, Public Policy and the Arts! So what exactly are we gifting the Healey Library at UMB?

For over a quarter of a century, The Peace Abbey has been a major center for the promotion of peace and social justice for metropolitan Boston and entire New England area and is recognized internationally for its work. Like its parent organization the Life Experience School, it was inspired by the life and times of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr, so it is most fitting that it now finds its new home next to the Kennedy Presidential Library and the soon to be completed Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. It was Ted Kennedy’s congressional inquiry into my case as a conscientious objector while a member of the 114th Medical battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard in 1971 that led to my discharge. And the Life Experience School and later the Peace Abbey would become, not simply alternative service, but “a lifelong alternative service”. So these gifts that we bestow on the University of Massachusetts Boston today are much more than they appear for they are the outward and physical representation of a journey of empowering people to say no to violence and to war and all that is deemed unacceptable by conscience.

Thus, the Peace Abbey served as the Founding headquarters for the National Registry for Conscientious Objection, stored archival material from the Vietnam War to the present wars in the Middle East, sought to demonstrate opposition to militarism through numerous, high profile peaceful acts of civil disobedience to prevent, then end armed conflict; endeavored to influence public policy through the recognition of unknown civilian casualties of war at Arlington National Cemetery through STONEWALK, USA which became a global requiem pilgrimage through the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Japan and South Korea which ended at the DMZ. The Abbey and the Life Experience School helped draw attention to the need to change the name of the state department here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides services to developmentally disabled individuals. We helped get the R word removed from the agency name, once and for all. The Peace Abbey commissioned great works of peace art through a collaboration with Georgian Artists, Lado and Shake Goudjabidze which included acclaimed sculptures of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero of El Salvador, Samantha Smith, President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Emily the Cow and the peace dove in out reached hands which is the Courage of Conscience Award which has been presented to extraordinary practitioners of nonviolent social change throughout the world. In the course of these twenty-five years, the Peace Abbey sought to reduce misunderstanding and its consequential violence by bringing religions, one of the major causes of war, hatred and societal dysfunction, together under one roof in the Abbey Chapel of Change.

So today, July 9, 2012, we are formally gifting to the University of Massachusetts Boston, the Peacemakers Table, around which Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou and many other peacemakers sat, the Abbey Grandfather Clock, which was donated by my father in honor of my mother Helen Randa, its display cases with artifacts of this extraordinary journey of peacemaking that the Life Experience School began in 1972, and gifting replicas of the original bronze statues belonging to the Life Experience School and the Peace Abbey along with the entire peace, social justice, pacifism and animal rights library. May the new Center and Archives for Peace, Social Action, Public Policy and the Arts put them to good use in educating students, faculty and the general public in the ways of peacemaking and the power and moral authority of nonviolence.

Today we sign the Deed of Gift to the University of Massachusetts Boston as a form of friendship, with every hope for the future and a desire that the Life Experience School and Peace Abbey’s mission, which is to make the world more compassionate and understanding, less harsh & more loving, finds expression here in this newly created Center & Archives for Peace, Social Justice, Public Policy & the Arts.

Lewis M. Randa, Founder
The Life Experience School / Peace Abbey