By Ella Santiago
An exhibit created by a BYU professor and students highlighting firefighters will soon be a published book of heroic stories.
Last year, Joseph Ostraff, professor of visual arts, and a group of BYU students interviewed a team of 36 firefighters. The Salt Lake County Fire Department represented all Utah fire departments as the largest fire department in the state.
The exhibit is installation art, a genre that incorporates media providing a more involved display.
“It”s bringing a group that you don”t usually think of as involved in art,” said Ruth Lubber, program director of Art Access Gallery in Salt Lake City. “The idea being that after 9/11 people looked at firefighters as heroes, when in reality they always did the same thing; they really didn”t change a lot.”
The exhibit “24-7: An Audio Installation,” displayed contemporary firefighters through audio interviews as well as photographs and quotes to depict their call of duty. Exhibit interviews told what firefighters really do as a community, as a family and as a people who are there to serve society.
“The older my boy gets, the more he”s able to understand things, but it scares him when I”m gone. He knows it”s really dangerous and he”s learned that when I walk out the door there”s no guarantee that I”m going to be back,” said Capt. Mike Watson, in one of the exhibit interviews.
Project directors and students also interviewed the paramedics, emergency operators, arson experts and battalion chiefs in order to include the sacrifices made by all contributing heroes.
“[Lubber] wanted a random sampling of not just firefighters, but investigators, paramedics and clerical help,” said Joe Ziolkowski, chief information officer of the Salt Lake County fire department. “It”s not just the firefighters but everyone within the fire service and the emergency services who help on an ongoing basis, 24 hours a day 7 days a week to basically to help the public.”
The project did not end there. The book will be published this fall.
Lubber pushed for the audio exhibit to be printed in book form. In order to do so, Art Access Gallery is raising funds for the continuation of “24-7.” So far, funding from the Utah Humanities Council, the Utah Art”s Council and other various groups have contributed to this community project.
“The main objective was to share our stories,” Ziolkowski said. “We share them really well with each another but never do we really get the opportunity to share those experiences that we have outside of our little realm.”
For more information about the project, call the Art Access Gallery, 801.328-0703.
