The WVU Women’s Resource Center invites faculty, staff, students and other community members to the opening reception for the Silent Witness Exhibit, honoring those murdered by acts of domestic violence, today (Oct. 5), at 3 p.m. in the Mountainlair Ballrooms. This event will feature live music and presentations on the topic of domestic violence from experts with a range of knowledge, experience and perspectives.
The Silent Witness Exhibit is a collection of 19 life-sized silhouettes that soundlessly scream out for victims who can no longer speak for themselves. Silhouettes represent West Virginians murdered by domestic violence between 2019-2020. Notably, most female victims were murdered by a current or former intimate partner, while most male victims were murdered by other various family members.
As part of a national initiative to raise awareness on the tragedy of domestic violence, viewers are encouraged to remember those who were murdered by acts of domestic violence, help raise awareness in local communities, connect people to local resources, advocate to end domestic violence and legislate to hold abusers accountable and help end the vicious cycle of domestic violence.
The exhibit is free and open for public viewings in the Vandalia Lounge of the Mountainlair from Oct. 5-12.
The Big 12 Violence and Discrimination Awareness and Prevention Fund made it possible for the WRC to update this year’s exhibit, which last displayed at WVU in 2006.
For more information on the WVU Silent Witness Exhibit, contact wrc@mail.wvu.edu.