An Eventful Visit to the NVVAM: National Veterans of Vietnam Art Museum

A Stunning Tribute to Often Forgotten Veterans of an Unpopular War

Do you know what NVVAM means? If you don't you should. The National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum is a collection of very personal art. The museum is located in Chicago and since 1981 has been a place that showcased art produced by veterans of the Vietnam War.

In May of this year, while on a trip across the U.S.A. with my daughters we were asked by a friend to accompany him to the museum. He had contributed a piece of work and said he wanted to contribute to another at the museum. Like so many artifacts of that war, his participation in the museum was the result of his continued battle with frustration, pain and guilt that resulted from his contact with the war. Since we were going to be in Chicago for a while, at the very time he invited us to accompany him, we agreed.

The museum is located in a building that most likely was a warehouse 18^th and Indiana south of the loop in a the very historic Prairie avenue area. We met my friend at the Museum café and had gone early so we would not miss him. I was happy to see my friend when he showed up, 30 minutes late, as had always been his usual practice.

Although I was glad to see my friend, I was not prepared for what was going to happen when we went inside. Although in the end, everyone of us completed the visit to the museum, I wondered if my friend would make it. He was very unnerved at the very first exhibit we saw.

Upon first entering you enter an atrium like area that is at least two stories high. There is an eerie sound that is both a mixture of the sound of rustling leaves and wind chimes. The sound is evidently caused by the movement of air through what the museum exhibit says is 58,000 dog tags suspended from above. Indeed, the name of that exhibit is Above and Beyond. It represents the life of each of the 58,000 men or women that died in action during the Vietnam war.

My friend immediately started having serious emotional problems. He must have walked along the restrictive railing, on both sides and one end of the exhibit, at least 20 times. He gazed into the dog tags looking for something he would never find. He was looking for his own name.