- May 5, 2024
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The art show on Saturday, Oct. 12, was another good reason why Hollingsworth Gallery, at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite 209B, is one of my favorite places in Palm Coast. The main reason I went was to support our community editor, Shanna Fortier, who was displaying some of her portraits taken of people in Guatemala.
Another exhibit that caught my attention was in the back corner, where at first, it looked like something inspired by Andy Warhol’s mass-produced prints. As I walked closer, I saw that it was a baby’s face. Each photo had a number written in the corner. For a few minutes, I stood and tried to figure out the meaning of the installation. But nothing I imagined could have been more impactful than the story behind the art.
Irena Sendler is my new hero. As a health worker in Poland during World War II, she smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto and into safety. Over the years, she saved an astounding 2,500 children. Their families did not all survive, but they did, thanks to Sendler, who risked her life, and nearly lost it, trying to save them.
The artist who created this monument to Sendler was Krystyna Spisak-Madejckyk, a Polish artist who lives in Palm Coast.
“When you write ‘2,500,’ Spisak-Madejckyk said, “it’s nothing. It’s just a number. But I wanted to show it.”
Although each face is the same on the wall, it’s sobering to think that these are 2,500 different people who presumably grew up and had children of their own, who lived and worked and loved and influenced countless others for good, and who would have been exterminated, if not for the courage and selflessness of one woman: Irena Sendler.
“Every one of us could have been that child,” Spisak-Madejckyk said.
This was an experience I won’t soon forget. That night I felt grateful not only to Spisak-Madejckyk for all the energy she spent to create the art and to Hollingsworth Curator J.J. Graham for working to provide these kinds of experiences for people in our fair city.
