In 1991, a group of eight women met to address the issue of violence against women in the Louisville area. They established the first Kentucky chapter of the Clothesline Project, based on a model created by a group of women in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Inspired by the AIDS Quilt, Clothesline Project groups take their name from the hanging of shirts decorated by female victims of violence. These displays of shirts have become a tangible representation of airing dirty laundry, of no longer keeping secret the violence that is so often hidden by a veil of shame and fear.
The Clothesline Project provides free, therapist-facilitated workshops for women who either have been abused themselves or who want to create a shirt in honor of a woman who has been murdered. The result is a moving, personal tribute, using a range of imagery, expression, and styles from simple pen and paint drawings to elaborate embroidery.Sessions are completely confidential.
The Louisville Clothesline Project held its first shirt-hanging ceremony on May 10, 1992. Inspired by the notion that they had done nothing wrong ─ and had nothing to be ashamed of ─ more than 200 women displayed shirts they made depicting the violence that they or a loved one had experienced. For many of the women, it was the first time they had spoken openly or publicly about their experiences.
Domestic volence feeds on silence. How will you speak out to stop the Abuse?
Every 15 seconds in the United States, a women is a victim of domestic violence.