Event honoring Torii Peace Gate at Silicon Valley Sculpture 2021

Lisa Solomon’s sculpture combines a redwood Torii gate (she selected her favorite traditional design for the Japanese gates at the entrance to Shinto or Buddhist temples or sacred places), constructed for her by artisan Jim Gilardi, which displays her arrangement of strands of colorful paper peace cranes – dipped in rubber to protect them from moisture for the outdoors installation.

The cranes suspended from the Peace Gate are part of over 2000 handmade paper peace cranes made by local residents from a 2020 art installation organized by the Peninsula/Palo Alto Women’s Intl. League for Peace and Freedom for the 76th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Art Ventures gallery in downtown Menlo Park. They are reborn in this sculpture.

• Come early, at 10:45 and gather at the sculpture, as you walk towards the entrance to the campus from the parking lot, and to your left. You can’t miss it.

• If you arrive between 10:45 and 11:00, the dancer and peace activist Sharat Lin will be performing part of the “Dance of Peace” at the sculpture for early arrivals, with graceful butterfly wings, symbolizing our delicate, vulnerable lives in the quest for freedom from nuclear weapons. He performed the Dance of Peace in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bombings of those cities, and regularly on the Peninsula.

• At 11 am after introductory remarks, Lisa and Jim will talk about their work on the project; Sharat will be introduced for a short comment. You will also have an opportunity to ask questions or share your reactions to the Peace Gate.

• At approx. 11:45 Sharat will complete his “Dance of Peace” as you spend more time viewing the inspirational Peace Gate, and then stroll through the grounds of the college to see the more than 30 other sculptures without a fee on the 24th, as guests of the event.

For more information about Silicon Valley Sculpture 2021, see: https://www.siliconvalleysculpture.com/