THE GUN VIOLENCE MEMORIAL PROJECT
The Gun Violence Memorial Project
May 2 – August 10, 2025
Woodward Gallery
Image: The Gun Violence Memorial Project, National Building Museum. Credit: National Building Museum/Elman Studio.
The Gun Violence Memorial Project (GVMP) creates a space for remembrance and reflection. The project serves as a living monument that honors the lives of people lost due to the ongoing Gun Violence epidemic within the United States. It invites visitors to storytelling, engage, and be in community around one of the most critical issues of our time.
The Gun Violence Memorial Project is a collaboration between Songha & Company, with artist Hank Willis Thomas serving as Creative Director, the Boston-based MASS Design Group, and in partnership with the gun violence prevention organization Purpose Over Pain. The memorial consists of four glass houses, each constructed with 700 clear bricks, a reference to the weekly average of gun-related deaths in the United States in 2019 when the memorial was first presented at the Chicago Architecture Biennale.
The bricks within these glass pavilions hold remembrance objects—baby shoes, graduation tassels, and photographs—donated by families in honor of loved ones whose lives were taken due to gun violence. These living memorials offer a deeply personal lens through which to understand the crisis. As Pamela Bosley, co-founder of Purpose Over Pain and mother of Terrell Bosley, a victim of gun violence, poignantly expressed: “You hear those numbers all the time, but you never tie names to them. I wanted you to see who my son was.”
Image: The Gun Violence Memorial Project. Photo: Rosa Caban.
Previous iterations of The Gun Violence Memorial Project have been exhibited at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. (2021), as well as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston City Hall, and Mass Design Office in Boston (2024–2025). As part of its ongoing evolution, the project continues to engage communities through local collection events, providing individuals an opportunity to contribute remembrance objects in honor of their lost loved ones.
At MOCAD, the museum will partner with the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, Got Grief House, End Gun Violence Michigan, and other organizations to host three collection events that invite our communities to share their stories and add a remembrance object to the project. These events will take place at the Museum on March 29, April 5, and June 21, 2025, from 12-5 pm. The gathered remembrance objects and the stories shared by families will become part of the memorial houses on view in MOCAD’s Woodward Gallery, commemorating victims from Michigan and beyond.
In addition to collection events, throughout the duration of the exhibition, MOCAD will present a range of programs dedicated to honoring and amplifying the voices of victims, survivors, families, and communities impacted by gun violence.
For more information, please visit the Gun Violence Memorial Project website.
Image: The Gun Violence Memorial Project, National Building Museum. Credit: National Building Museum/Elman Studio.
Collection Events
If you have lost an immediate family member to gun violence, we invite you to participate in this memorial by contributing an object in memory of your loved one and sharing their story.
Remembrance Objects can be anything that tells a story of your loved one. Please select an object that is not perishable, no longer than 9” L x 4.5” W x 3” H, and something that you are comfortable with being on display within the memorial.
DATES
Saturday, March 29, 12-5PM
Saturday, April 5, 12-5PM
Saturday, June 21, 12-5PM
All collection events are held at the Museum. For more information, please visit the Contribute an Object portal.
Events
Event information about upcoming exhibitions will be published in fall 2023.
About MASS Design Group
MASS Design Group is an architecture and design collective that researches, builds, and advocates for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. They have worked in over 20 countries, with 30 projects built or in construction. MASS brings inclusive design processes and invests in community empowerment, helping partners advance their mission through the built environment. Their project, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, was recently called “the single greatest work of American architecture of the twenty-first century.”
Image: MASS Design Team. Courtesy of MASS Design Group.
About Songha & Company
Songha & Company is a producer of public artworks. By and through its founder, artist Hank Willis Thomas, Songha & Company practices in the area of conceptual public art by working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. The company was named after Thomas’ cousin, Songha Thomas Willis, who was a victim of gun violence on February 2, 2000.
Image: Artist Hank Willis Thomas. Courtesy of Songha & Company.
About Purpose Over Pain
Purpose Over Pain was formed in 2007 by several Chicago area parents whose children’s lives were taken by gun violence. They advocate for safer communities, strengthen families by providing crisis support to parents/guardians whose children have been victims of gun violence, and provide positive development activities for children and youth.
Image: Pamela Bosley and Annette Nance Holt, founders of Purpose Over Pain. Courtesy of Purpose Over Pain.
Press + Media
Exhibition title in Publication, Month Day, Year
Exhibition Credits
This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Michigan Justice Fund.
