Tuesday, February 18, 2025

In Photos: Peace flags pepper CAM’s campus for MLK Day

Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

WILMINGTON — Cameron Art Museum (CAM) brought together community members to create art that evokes thoughts and sentiments of peace in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Over the weekend, it hosted its inaugural Dream Flag Community Installation in celebration of MLK Day.

Museum staff hung over 400 hand-crafted flags, decorated with fabric crayons, markers, and other materials. According to the museum, the squares are symbolic of Tibetan prayer flags.

The installation can be seen hanging around the pond’s perimeter at the museum’s entrance on 17th St. Ext.

“Most of the people who participated bought at-home peace flag kits and did them with their families,” Heather Wilson, deputy director for CAM, said.

Schools and community organizations also participated.

The museum welcomed around 50 folks onto its grounds in pre-registered slots on Saturday and Sunday to decorate the flags safely and socially distanced. Honoring King’s legacy felt natural, Wilson said, if not more important than ever when reflecting upon the last year of civil unrest and calls for social justice akin to the civil rights movement of the ’60s.

“Together these peace flags become a beautiful chorus for equity, justice, kindness, peace, and equality,” Wilson said. “When you come see them, you’ll see the truly thoughtful and heartfelt dreams for our city, our county, and our nation that our participants expressed.”

CAM is known for hosting numerous hands-on interactive events. Annually, it welcomes folks to make lanterns as part of its holiday exhibit “Illumination,” which culminates in a floating lantern ceremony (it wrapped on Jan. 10). Last fall, it hosted the 19th Amendment Project for the “She Persists” exhibit (on display through March).

“We will definitely have more this year!” Wilson assured.

She also promised the Dream Flag Community Installation will become a tradition moving forward. For now, it’s on display through the end of January.

Click and hold the photo below to open the gallery and scroll.

Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)
Cameron Art Museum installed peace flags created from the community to hang around the perimeter of the pond at their 17th St. Ext. entrance. (Port City Daily/Shea Carver)

   

Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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