AdDRESSING Women's Lives on display

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Recently, Ethan Grossman, a student at the Weber Jewish Community High School, wrote a moving piece for Jewesses with Attitude about participating in the adDRESSING Women's Lives project. Now, the Covenant Foundation has highlighted the project in honor of Women's History Month!

Atlanta – March 1, 2010 – Over at the Marcus Jewish Community Center here, visitors might be forgiven for thinking they’ve walked into some sort of fashion show.

There are, after all, dresses hanging on the walls. adDRESSING women's lives, an innovative educational initiative at The Weber School in Atlanta, pairs students with senior women in an oral history project with an artful and cross-generational twist. After interviewing the women about their lives, students design dresses that reflect these women's silent, but very real impact on their families and communities. Spearheaded by Covenant Award recipient and educator Barbara Rosenblit, along with Sheila Miller, the school's arts educator, the program has attracted national attention for its educational value, uniqueness and effectiveness.

But upon closer look – and these dresses are getting plenty – it’s more apparent what’s going on. They are one-of-a-kind originals for sure, not in a fashionable way, but in a decidedly personal and historical sense.

Read the rest here.

The piece included this great video, which features the adDRESSING Women's Lives participants from 2008. You can view the dresses from the 2009 group on Flickr.

Learn more about adDRESSING Women's Lives at jwa.org/teach/bestpractices/weberschool2009.

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