Family Diversity Projects
Press Release – 01 July 1999
To spotlight and celebrate the ever-growing diversity of the American Family, photographer Gigi Kaeser and writer Peggy Gillespie, Amherst, Mass., have created an ambitious, award-winning photograph-text exhibit, Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families.
The Of Many Colors exhibit has visited public schools (K-12,) churches and synagogues, colleges, community centers, galleries, and museums since l994. There are two exhibit versions, one for K-6 level children and one version for adolescents and adults.
Of Many Colors tells the stories of 20 families who have bridged the racial divide through interracial relationships or adoption. In a world where race is considered by many to be a formidable barrier between people, the families in this exhibit are celebrated as twentieth century pioneers willing to risk disapproval and misunderstanding to find richness and value in diversity. These families have much to say about the most intimate form of integration: family love.
Of Many Colors is designed to be used by educators, diversity groups, human resources professionals, parents, students, religious leaders, librarians, and all people interested in bringing issues of diversity to their community.
The exhibit has been seen at such places as the First Parish Unitarian Church in Arlington, Mass., the Unitarian Society of Northampton, Mass., the Needham, Mass. schools system, Oberlin College, Williams College, Jefferson County, Kentucky Public Schools, the Annual American Society of Curriculum Development Conference, Columbia University, Central Michigan University, and many other locations.
Family Diversity Projects, Inc. is a non-profit organization, based in Amherst, Mass, devoted to educating the public about issues related to the diversity of family life. The organization was founded by photographer Kaeser and editor Gillespie. Family Diversity Projects creates photo-text exhibits and books to help eliminate prejudice, stereotyping, name-calling, and harassment of people discriminated against due to race, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and mental disability.
Three other acclaimed touring exhibits, Nothing to Hide: Mental Illness in the Family; Love Makes a Family: Living in Gay and Lesbian Families; and In Our Family, Portraits of All Kinds of Families, also visit communities nationwide.
The book, also entitled Of Many Colors, (with a foreword by Teaching Tolerance magazine editor, Glenda Valentine). The book features the complete exhibit text and photographs of over 20 families along with a comprehensive diversity resource guide.
Internet browsers can view images, interviews, and other information about the Of Many Colors exhibit and book at: http://www.familydiv.org/ofmanycolors/. For more information about both the Of Many Colors exhibit and book, contact ChrisComm Management, 570-675-4933, PO Box 1493, Kingston, Pa 18704, or email: chriscom@microserve.net.