Touring throughout Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, downtown Augusta’s Sacred Heart Cultural Center will be hosting a two-night showing of the 2023 Bullets and Bandaids Volume 4, “The Next Step.”
Bullets and Bandaids is an art and storytelling experience that pairs veterans with civilian writers and artists to create visual representations of first hand accounts from those who have served in Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine and more places.
With over 100 participants and stories ranging from World War II to civilian experiences of having veterans in their lives, the nonprofit’s mission is to “further a living anthology of veterans, writers, and artists to celebrate our common humanity through a traveling art project,” according to their website.
First established in 2012, the project has worked with hundreds of soldiers ranked from private to two-star general as well as civilians to portray a multitude of perspectives that span across different cultures and military backgrounds.
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“We recognize personal and cultural growth as an act of courage, and therefore leave room for every voice,” said Bullets and Bandaids’ mission statement. “By blurring the line between these participants, we can underscore that we are all in this together, sharing our lives and humanity, regardless of our past experiences.”
After serving two tours in the Marine Corps and experiencing complications with readjustment to civilian life, Founder and CEO of Bullets and Bandaids Robert LeHeup began the traveling exhibit to encourage the creation of artwork that gave a story visual representation.
“It was the sort of interconnectedness that I’d always thought was essential to our social development,” said LeHeup in his biography on the website. “I had found that the metaphor that artwork presents was able to, through conversation, tie people together that would otherwise have never spoken.”
Following the pandemic and a brief period of being a solely online art exhibit, Bullets and Bandaids began to collect submissions of stories and artwork from around the world. Liberia, the Netherlands, Israel and Lebanon were among the countries that were represented in the tour’s first international exhibition alongside over 40 veteran-focused stories from the southeast of the United States.
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This year, participating veterans will receive a canvas print of the artwork inspired by their shared stories.
“As someone who had spent so much time in a world of hyperbolic violence, sometimes self-inflicted, I wanted to dedicate my life to healing,” said LeHeup. “So, I did it the only way I knew how. By giving people the agency to speak their truth. To allow their souls to exhale the smoke in their lungs. To give hope … we are more than just a nonprofit. We are a movement.”
The Sacred Heart Cultural Center, located at 1301 Greene St., will hold two shows on Feb. 22 and 23, Wednesday and Thursday, from 5 to 9 p.m.
For tickets to the event, guests can pay $10 online at: https://bulletsandbandaids.org/volume-4-the-next-step/?fbclid=IwAR0wg0o6PXNYu5d8nrGWZhTrmjR5-nf3D0w6eYeXeoPtJS6aSG2Tx622V4E
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education, lifestyle and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
