The Big Book: Pages for Peace exhibit, featuring the world’s largest book about peace, opened July 11 at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough. The exhibit will run through the end of 2018.
The Big Book exhibit has a big goal: to share a profound message of hope and peace and engage young people, teachers, and visitors of all ages in thinking about how to build a more peaceful and sustainable world. At the heart of the exhibit is the Big Book itself, which measures 10 feet by 20 feet wide when open, with over 1,000 larger than life pages. Visitors can see the book, turn its pages (it takes two people), or use a high speed digital kiosk to visit chapters or individual pages more quickly.
For the last few years, the Big Book has been in storage as the Pages for Peace board has developed educational curriculum to share, an exhibit that shares the story of Sawyer, her students, and the book’s creation, and planned a new tour. Making the book accessible to a wide audience and especially educators and students is a priority. The choice of the Mariposa was logical. The Mariposa serves approximately 2,000 students each year through classroom visits to the museum, home school programs, and outreach programs. Betsy Sawyer and her students were annual visitors.
“We are thrilled to host The Big Book at the Mariposa,” said Mariposa Executive Director Karla Hostetler. “The book’s purpose and message are very much in keeping with the Mariposa’s mission to foster peace and understanding across cultural boundaries. The book is an extraordinary achievement, not only for its size, but for the number of people whose ideas it unites. You can’t help but feel uplifted as you read through the messages – many of them moving and profound – from people young and old, all over the world, who believe peace is possible. It is a powerful work of art and activism, with a message much needed at this time. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, this year, that it is young people who have brought us this message and way to engage anew.”
An educator from the Big Book: Pages for Peace Foundation will be working with the Mariposa through the exhibit’s run, and Hostetler encouraged summer camp directors and teachers interested in visiting the exhibit with groups to contact her. But she added the exhibit has great appeal for families and visitors of every age. “It’s fun to turn the pages,” she said, “and also to create your own message to share.”