Vantage Point Hosts "Refusing to Forget" Featuring Activist Artist

Residences at Vantage Point Arts & Culture Collective programming continues with a talk by mixed media artist, Howard Community College professor and human rights activist Fahimeh Vahdat, on Saturday, Dec. 10, 3:30-4:30 p.m., in the auditorium.

Vahdat’s range of work addresses human rights abuses, particularly against women and girls, and other issues, highlighting real world events, memorializing victims, and engaging viewers toward change.

In her talk, “Refusing to Forget: Hard Truths and the Power of the Visual in Documenting the Past and Present,” Vahdat will speak to the power of using art to further public awareness, focus attention, build collective memory, and facilitate action. She will be joined in conversation by Tim Singleton, author of a recent essay on her work in the Little Patuxent Review.

As an exile and refugee — Vahdat fled homeland Iran shortly after the revolution in 1979 — her work draws directly from her own experience and the experience of others to bring to public attention issues that might otherwise receive little or no attention. Her work ranges from painting, printmaking, drawing, and textile, to performance and collaboration, often creating environments to surround and engage exhibition audiences. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, showing in Dallas, New York, San Francisco, China, Italy, and Argentina, among other places, as well as locally in Washington, Baltimore, and Columbia.

The Arts & Culture Collective hosts a series of programs at Residences at Vantage Point to highlight Columbia as the “campus” for residents of the retirement community. Partnerships with local institutions make the series possible, and the public is invited to attend free of charge.

The reading/discussion of “Refusing to Forget” is set for Dec. 10, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the retirement community’s auditorium. A virtual presentation is also available. Registration is requested for visitors at 410-992-1241 or kestenn@vantgepointresidences.org.

Residences at Vantage Point was founded in 1990 and is a nonprofit serving people age 60 and above. Managed by Life Care Services, the community includes a variety of residential living arrangements and provides assisted living, memory care and long- term health services for residents should they need them. Residences at Vantage Point is located at 5400 Vantage Point Road in Downtown Columbia. For more information, visit www.vantagepointresidences.org.