Walk for Our Lives march scheduled for March 24 in Menlo Park

Students, their families, and supportive community members don’t need to journey to Washington, DC, on March 24 to March for Our Lives or even to other cities in the Bay Area thanks to Dr. Katharina Powers, owner of Art Ventures in downtown Menlo Park, who is organizing a walk on that day from noon to 1:00 pm from the gallery to Hillview Middle School and back.

Participants will be accompanied by a special guest, contemporary artist Lin Evola who started the Peace Angel Project in 1992, working to create art out of melted weapons.

“I met Lin Evola the day after the Parkland, Florida shooting, and I tried to initiate a gun buy back project for Silicon Valley with the mayors. I sent emails to 30 mayors, four responded.

“My mission is to support the kids. I have four kids of my own. Hence, organizing a Walk for Our Lives in homage to the many marches being held around the country.

“‘Art is the highest form of hope’ said Gerhard Richter, a German contemporary artist. Through art we are trying to get weapons off the streets.

“We are showing art with meaning. Lin’s peace angel is very meaningful, and we are creating peace flags with Lin’s peace symbol on them.”

Here’s more about Lin taken from the Peace Angel website:

“Lin Evola began the Peace Angels Project in 1992 as an active art project that invites weapon donations, converting the once destructive armament materials into compelling images which provoke the possibilities of peace. During the more than twenty years of building the Peace Angels Project, creating art has been Evola’s way of working out philosophical insights and foundational thoughts that have become actualized as the Peace Angels Project.

“Evola’s sculptures and paintings integrate symbols of both affirmation and challenge to reach beyond words and touch a place deep inside of each of us. Her art pairs ancient symbols with weapons materials as she asks us to find common ground when we disagree, rather than to take up arms against one another. From primordial times to today, human beings have used symbols to represent prevailing cultural mores and expected standards for human behavior.”

Explains Katharina: “We will distribute flags to carry (pictured top), but, of course, any one can create and bring their own flags/messages.”

Art Ventures is located at 888 Santa Cruz Avenue, close to Fremont Park (University and SCA)

Photos courtesy of Art Ventures and Lin Evola’s website.