A traveling photographic exhibit of Oregon women military veterans, created by the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, is being hosted by three of Central Oregon Community College’s (COCC) campuses during the month of March. The exhibit is in recognition of women veterans, Women’s History Month and a forthcoming proclamation by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek to establish a state Women’s Military History Week for the third week of March.
First opened at the Portland Art Museum in 2017, the 20-portrait exhibit, titled “I am Not Invisible,” will visit COCC’s Bend (March 11-15), Prineville (March 18-22) and Madras campuses (March 25-29) for free viewing, with a reception from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, March 8, at the Bend campus’s Coats Campus Center.
Featured veterans include U.S. Marine officer and Cobra pilot Kyleanne Hunter, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Mary J. Mayer and U.S. Army officer Maria Carolina González-Prats, with brief biographies accompanying individual portraits. The exhibit has toured many sites throughout the state and was also displayed in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
According to the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, there are nearly 26,000 women veterans in Oregon, representing almost one-tenth of the state’s total veteran population.
The project was designed by Portland State University’s veterans resource center director Felita Singleton and former Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs women veterans coordinator Elizabeth Estabrooks, who also curated the debut exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. This year’s theme for Women’s Military History Week is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
