Soulfire has been transformed from a photographic art project and calendar, to a multimedia art show based on the experiences of adult survivors of child sexual trauma. This year, The Firecracker Foundation partnered with artists to produce works of art that are based on the individual stories of adult survivors of child sexual abuse. The artwork will be exhibited throughout 2018 in order to generate dialogue and advocacy for child survivors of sexual trauma and the work of The Firecracker Foundation throughout the community.
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The artwork leverages an unusual grouping of resources, like the various multi-media pieces or the upcycled items in a mirror. In several others, the art tells the story of the survivor using an unusual resource to foster their healing, like acrobatics, magical powers, veins, mirrors and superhero reflections.
In one way or another, each piece of art reflects the power of creating a survivor story out of whatever is lying around.
Artists are survivors and survivors are artists. As is true in our lived experience, sexual violence impacts every member of our community. This project helps to make visible the ways that this violence is experienced, confronted, and how survivors and their families endeavor to heal over time. It also gives the viewer a window into the peer support and encouragement between survivors.
These survivors and their stories encompass beautiful examples of fortitude, resilience and resourcefulness in the ways that they have found their healing spaces in unlikely, not always so traditional, and creative places.
The Soulfire Project endeavors to establish a local culture where the experiences, symptoms and reactions to sexual trauma are well known and understood so that each survivor’s community is a healthy environment conducive to healing.
We encourage the validation of survivor experiences and an understanding of their responses to sexual trauma as normal while raising awareness of terminology and the prevalence of child sexual trauma and abuse through innovative storytelling.
