This question guide created by Tyler Boudreau for 100 Faces of War Experience: Portraits and Words of Americans Who Served in Iraq and Afghanistan with support from Mass Humanities
100 Faces of War Experience – Presentation Questions
- As you look at the faces in these portraits and read their statements, what emotions do you feel coming up inside yourself?
- What expectations did you have about how these portraits would look, how the statements would sound, and how you would react? How did the experience differ from your expectations?
- How do you feel about war in general? How do you feel about these wars in particular? How does this project challenge and/or reinforce those feelings?
- In thinking about American wars and the soldiers who have fought them, how have your opinions been formed? What have been your sources of information throughout your life? (Sources might include family, friends, history books, newspapers or media, community traditions, cultural atmosphere, etc.) As you inventory those sources, ask yourself how those sources might have influenced you positively or negatively about war.
- What is the value of this project for you and for society? Do the experiences of individual soldiers matter to our understanding of war? If so, do they matter enough to be incorporated into our daily lives as these wars go on?
- What do you think the appropriate attitude is toward armed conflict? The statements of the people depicted in the 100 Faces of War Experience indicate a diversity of attitudes; how can you reconcile your attitude with that diversity?
- How do the experiences of the service members differ from your own? How are they similar? How do the attitudes of the civilians depicted compare? Were you aware of these differences or similarities before? How have they influenced your views on war in the past? How does this exhibit influence you now?
- How do you think culture, tradition, and education have helped define the attitudes portrayed in this exhibit? How have they defined your attitudes towards them?
- How does art help you to understand the essence of the war experience? Do you think art can convey elements of the war experience that cannot be otherwise articulated? How might you express your own feelings artistically? How might you seek deeper meaning in all human experience through the arts?
- Have you learned something unexpected from this project? Is there something more you wish were included? What is your feeling as you leave the room?