In 1990, a group of women artists joined together with several women's organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence. The women felt a call to action to speak out against the escalating domestic violence in Minnesota and commemorate the lives of twenty-six women who had been murdered in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. The group created 26 freestanding, life-sized red wooden figures, each bearing the name of a woman whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was also created to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were wrongly ruled accidental. The figures were named the Silent Witnesses.
The Silent Witness Initiative was launched on February 18, 1991 when more than 500 women met at a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol with the Witnesses lined up at the front of the church. The women formed a silent procession escorting the figures single file across the street, up the steps, and into the State Capitol Rotunda for public statements and a press conference. According to the Initiative, “The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power... and the loss.”
In mid-1994, a few Silent Witness Exhibit supporters formed a national initiative dedicated to the elimination of domestic murder, starting with the creation of Silent Witnesses Exhibits in all 50 states. By September of 1995, the Initiative had grown to a total of 800 Silent Witnesses with seventeen states involved. By February of 1996 the Initiative grew to twenty-four states and as of March of 1997 forty-six states had joined the initiative. The goal of the Silent Witness National Initiative became zero domestic murders by the year 2010. Now all the states are involved as well as twenty other countries. The stories of the original twenty-seven witnesses, whose murders began the initiative, have prevailed.
Today, the Minnesota Women’s Consortium coordinates displays of the original 27 Silent Witnesses in Minnesota. This past October, Fillmore Family Resources, a nonprofit agency providing services to residents of Fillmore County and surrounding communities by helping those who have been affected by domestic violence or other types of crime, contacted the Consortium to organize a display of Silent Witnesses in Fillmore County. The Silent Witnesses were displayed in banks, libraries, and other county buildings. Fillmore Family Resources reported that the Silent Witnesses were well received in Fillmore County and many people were moved by the displays. If you would like to arrange your own Silent Witness display call 651-228-0338 or to support programs such as this one visit our website and click on “Make a Gift Today.”
