Project Face to Face©began in 1988 when Jason Dilley asked community members of the San Francisco bay area to join him in an effort to confront the national hysteria surrounding the AIDS pandemic in America. Combining the traditions of the Roman and Greek theaters Project Face to Face took face castings and recorded oral histories of People Living with AIDS to the streets and coffee houses of San Francisco.

 

Project Face to Face created a positive public discourse on a timely topic that was honored at the Smithsonian Institution in the inclusion of the inaugural exhibition of the Experimental Gallery. A three-phase AIDS awareness curriculum was created for middle and high school students who were bused from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.  Good Morning America aired a segment on World AIDS Day and mmay beviewed by clicking here.

 

Beginning in 1996 Jason expanded this type of work by creating Unheard Voices of America® incorporating full body portrait castings of survivors of sexual abuse accompanied by recorded oral histories in English and Spanish of both genders. There are twenty face castings in an exhibit that denote the varied circumstances of sexual abuse and the many ways that individuals process the stages of denial, acceptance and healing.

 

Cornell Advocates for Rape Education(CARE) co-authored the curriculum for college and university students and community centers. There is probably no other social issue before us today that’s more difficult – or more important- to address for young people sexual abuse healing. The challenge has been how to relay the seriousness of the issue without turning off the audience who most needs to hear about it—young Americans. 

 

Project Face to Face has met this challenge with the most innovative solutions to emerge in the education and public service arena by removing the barriers to communication in a simple, clear and honest public conversation. Currently in America institutional denial of abuse affects 1 out of 4 females and 1 out of 6 males by the time they become twenty years of age.  We hope you join us in an exciting time in history to create a safer world for all survivors.

My intent in creating Project Face to Face was to articulate something that is difficult for our society to understand. The work is a question, asking you, the viewer, exactly how much compassion will you bring to the issue of compassion in your community and in your daily life. I view my role as an artist as expressing in aesthetic, tangible and symbolic terms the many facets of our human nature.