The Scarlet Cord Showcases at the Kent County Courthouse

Behind the Artwork

Wounded - Mixed media art and part of The Scarlet Cord installation

Pamela will be presenting The Scarlet Cord: Healing for Sex Trafficked Children at the Kent County Courthouse to help educate about commercial sex trafficking—called modern day slavery.

Violated

“Are you the artist?” the young woman asked from the distance of fifteen feet. But before I had a chance to move within normal conversation range, her rigid arm and raised hand extended towards me like a traffic cop—communicating a clear message: “Stop. Don’t come any closer.”

Although this young woman was trying to hide her past, she unveiled her deep secrets to a group of us at The Scarlet Cord installation outside the Ford Presidential Museum during ArtPrize 2014.

A volunteer asked her, “Would you like one of the artist’s cards?”

“No,” she responded. “I know more than I ever wanted to know.”

Then she walked towards me, but she kept the brochure table between us. “You have used all the right words,” she added.

One word from The Scarlet Cord installation came to mind: violated.

The young woman tried to maintain the impression of being in control, but she was fractured. Broken. She had learned survival skills. Self-protection strategies. I wondered, though, if these carefully laid plans were blocking the road to healing. Or was she doing the best that she could?

Learning to trust again would be a long process for her. It could take a lifetime to overcome such deep wounds. This young woman needed loving friends who would help break down her fifteen-foot barrier, caring people to journey with her towards wholeness and freedom.

The Scarlet Cord Film Helps Educate

Judge Patricia Gartner utilizes The Scarlet Cord Film as an educational tool for juveniles in the court system to learn about sex trafficking and its impact.

Healing in Arts Featured at Q Commons

General

Origami paper cranes

In 2006, while attending the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, I met—would you believe?—Makoto Fujimura. In his book signing line, I showed him my out-of-date Xerox portfolio. Mako kindly leafed through the poorly printed images and said something that changed my paradigm: “Your art speaks of healing.” Within five minutes, Mako named my calling, though, at the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant.

Ten years, and eight years of ArtPrize later, since Fujimura first empowered my creativity, thousands of visitors have encountered art’s healing catalyst. By creating meaningful installations about challenging issues like autism or sex trafficking, my interactive installations have helped people process pain and experience healing.

Join us for Q Commons at the Calvin College Ladies Literary Club on Thursday, October 13. Hear how “Healing in Arts” is creating community with a new paradigm for art making. We can hardly wait to debut a new addition to ArtPrize 2014: The Scarlet Cord collection.

Healing in Arts: A Pathway to Flourishing
By Artist Pamela Alderman
Calvin Ladies Literary Club
61 Sheldon Blvd SE, Grand Rapids
Thursday, October, 13, 2016
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Healing in Arts

Behind the Artwork

Mother and children hang Hope Cards on Healing TreeHealing in Arts successfully creates community with a new healing paradigm for art making in a world where rapid cultural fragmentation alienates us. A superficial world where people ricochet from one activity to the next. A cyber culture where we rack up 5,847 synthetic Facebook friends. A culture where we spend less and less real face time within meaningful relationships.

Well-known artist Makoto Fujimura explains how my art facilitates healing: “Art that focuses on the audience rather than the artist’s need for self-expression is unique. A paradigm shift.” By serving others and inviting soul care, the art helps unlock people and move them towards human flourishing.

For example in 2014 after viewing The Scarlet Cord, an anti-sex trafficking installation, a middle-aged woman leaned into me and released a heavy sigh, I felt it to the core. Then she walked away. Not a single word was spoken. But something transpired. Whether large or small, this woman experienced healing—at an art installation.

In the midst of our rapid growing cyber culture where increased isolation breeds loneliness, the viewers feel validated and cared for; their stories underscore the need for creating donor supported Healing in Arts. Time and again visitors experience what T.S. Eliot calls the still point: A significant place in time. A moment of release where change and transformation begin. Healing in Arts, through the art making, builds healthy communities where real people experience renewal and healing.

I know many of you will want to help make Healing in Arts happen.
Donate through New Horizons Foundation

Project name: Healing in Arts

The Scarlet Cord at Manasseh Project

From the Heart

Scene from The Scarlet Cord video

That night I couldn’t sleep. Images of humans displayed like animals in a pet store window haunted me.

When I was nineteen, while traveling through Europe, our tour bus stopped at the Red Light Windows of Amsterdam. As I stood in the middle of the district, window after window displayed women perched on chairs—selling their bodies. Next to each window was a door; a steady stream of men flowed in and out of each door.

The IMPACT

I didn’t know that during my trip—the enormous abuse and degradation of women I had witnessed would grow into an ArtPrize art installation one day to help raise awareness for the children who are sex trafficked in Amsterdam or Thailand or even Grand Rapids.

The Scarlet Cord and The Super Bowl

Behind the Artwork

Targeted - mixed media by Pamela AldermanA year ago when Jim Waring, the vice mayor of Phoenix, spoke at The Scarlet Cord Exhibit opening during the 2015 Super Bowl, he had a message for the buyers of sex: “We are coming after you.” Listening to the vice mayor, I felt like I was on the set of a Batman movie.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 100,000 children are sold within the commercial sex trade in America each year. Wherever thousands of people pour into athletic or other large events—like the Super Bowl—the risk of trafficking increases.

Last year The Scarlet Cord exhibit was located on a vacant lot in downtown Phoenix during the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, offering hope and healing to the sexually wounded and curious. During the two-week exhibit, we spoke to students, professionals, vagrants, tourists, and trafficked women.

Here are some of the Phoenix visitors’ responses to The Scarlet Cord:

  • One woman said she was trafficked while her father was wearing the coveted Super Bowl ring.
  • A young girl sat on the curb—holding her head in her hands—crying out, “I know what it is. I know what it is.”
  • A seasoned Phoenix news anchor said, “I did not realize the extent of the problem when I went out there; you can’t walk away without having an impact.”

Shared Hope International reports that “underage sex workers average 6,000 clients over the course of five years, and are typically instructed to serve between 10 and 15 clients per night. However, reports confirm that girls have served as many as 45 clients in a day during peak demand times, which includes major sports events.”

The 2016 Super Bowl is only days away. Will San Francisco, like Gotham, rig up the search lights in the sky—an “SOS”—calling for justice in the war against commercial sex trafficking? We need national leaders and concerned citizens who will stand for the protection of our nation’s most vulnerable—our children.

Visit the Do 1 Thing Challenge page to learn about seven red flags that may indicate a young person is being groom or targeted for trafficking. Find out more about The Scarlet Cord Exhibit and Film to schedule an event or to better understand the issue of sex trafficking—the dark world of Gotham—that exists in our communities. We may not be able to save the thousands of children that will be trafficked this year at the Super Bowl, but we can offer love and hope to one at-risk child within our circle of influence.

StreetLightUSA sponsored The Scarlet Cord in Phoenix, AZ

IMAGE: Targeted, Pamela Alderman, 21 x 62 inches, Mixed media, 2016

The work called Targeted—portraying a child, a bull’s eye, and a roll of film—pictures how children are the ones left harmed by pornography. Not only does the industry deliberately prey on children to ensnare younger and younger viewers, but according to Shared Hope International, one out of every five pornographic images is of a child.

The Scarlet Cord Exhibit and Film Screening

General

The Scarlet Cord exhibit and Film coming to GVSU in February

Grand Valley State University will be hosting The Scarlet Cord exhibit and film screening in February. This unique event will give insight into the world of human trafficking, while offering hope and ideas for action. Judge T.J. Ackert will speak about the increase of trafficking on local levels. Artist Pamela Alderman, whose work The Scarlet Cord will be on display, will discuss her experience of depicting sex trafficking during ArtPrize 2014 and the 2015 Super Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. Elise Hilton will share her family’s journey from trauma to recovery.

The film highlights the reactions of those who walked through Alderman’s art installation, including trafficking and sexual abuse survivors. The event will conclude with volunteers tying the infamous scarlet cords on the wrists of those in attendance as an ever-present reminder of the pain those engulfed in human trafficking experience each and every day. Join us for an evening of art, awareness, and a call to action.

When: Thursday, February 4, 2016
Where: GVSU Allendale Campus • Mary Idema Pew Library • Multipurpose Room
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
(616) 331-3219

Sponsored by the Meijer Honors College, the Political Science Department, and the Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment

IMAGE: Wounded II, Pamela Alderman, 31 x 29½ inches, Oil on canvas, 2016