Faces Not Forgotten

Jessica Meyers, director of CVA, said that one thing families say over and over is that they are afraid that their child will be forgotten. The Faces Not Forgotten Project attempts to keep their memory alive and to offer some small comfort and support to the families. 

These children are not just numbers or statistics. Each one of them was a life ended. Each one has a Face. Faces Not Forgotten insures the young victims of gun violence are not forgotten. As a result, the “Faces Project,” paints the portraits of children, 20 and under, who have died as the result of gun violence. We paint a portrait, the “Face” of each child, which is then donated to the family. A JPEG image of the original portrait is graphically superimposed over an image of a vintage handkerchief by Andrew Dobson and printed on 16″x20″ canvas panels with grommets in the corners to create the “Faces”. These are tied together with black ribbon in sets of 9, 8 portraits for the 8 children that die each day from gun violence and 1 logo, to create our Faces Not Forgotten quilts. While quilts have been made for cities around the country, in St. Louis, we tie Ribbons of Hope from the Ferguson movement to the top

You can participate Today. 

Artists are needed to paint the portraits, there are so many. Donations are needed to purchase the materials. And, if you are a survivor with a child who has been killed by gun violence, you can apply to have your child memorialized so as not to be forgotten. 

Congratulations to Founder Christine Ilewski-Huelsmann for having Faces Not Forgotten included in the exhibit, Deadlocked and Loaded, Disarming America with six of the quilts. Check out the catalog especially pages 56-57. Also, listen to Christine discuss FNF on AIGA STL by Design!