The attacks of September 11 came as a shock and outrage to millions of Americans across the country. Some took up arms against faceless foes, some fought against the racial discrimination of innocents, and some shouldered the pain of lives lost. Lloyd Kleine Harvey, a native of St. Louis and adopted New Yorker, created art. Harvey has spent the entirety of his life as the witness of violence and hate, the most recent of which brought destruction to the city he loves. And so he has dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace.

Upon entering the third floor studio of the City Museum, one is greeted by an eight-foot tall, scaled version of the St. Louis arch, wrapped in newspaper cutouts featuring the attacks of Sept. 11. Underneath the structure stands one solitary word: “peace,” written out in tree bark. A wreath of cotton husks, arranged in the shape of a heart, stands nearby. Soft instrumental music dances around the studio and a life-size statue of the Dalai Lama, created entirely out of recycled materials, bows graciously in the corner. The trickle of a fountain brings serenity to the curious arrangement of sculpture, paintings, poems, photographs, fabrics, and murals that are the work of artists and philosophers, age seven to 70. Despite the seemingly unmethodical arrangement of art, there is one element that unites all the pieces, artists, and visionaries-the search for peace.

The Peace Project is currently holding its second art exhibition, A Celebration of Peace and Cultural Diversity, through February 15. Located in the City Museum, the exhibition is a showcase of the Project’s ongoing workshops with people of all ages, religions, and races. Also centered at the City Museum is Harvey’s other professional venture, Art From Recycled Materials, a non-profit program that joins artistic creation with environmental awareness. The traveling Peace Project is presented as Recycled Materials’ current exhibition and is housed within the organization’s permanent studio. The goal of the project is to spread the word of peace and compassion in a world with such obvious tendencies towards hate and violence. As creative director, Harvey has been working with ethnically and culturally diverse groups, ranging from correctional facility inmates to Catholic nuns, spreading his vision for almost two years.

“[The Project] began as my personal need for the realization of peace,” said the 70-year-old Harvey, with a low, gentle drawl.

The project held its first conference in December 2000, following the shootings at Columbine High School and the Oklahoma City bombing. These incidents were, to Harvey, the apex of violence among adults and children.

“The violence struck a chord in me,” said Harvey. “It was then that I found my life’s work.”

Since then, he has been working with different groups discussing, sharing, and creating together in the name of peace. Harvey has worked with children in inner city schools, renowned artists, writers, and poets, prison inmates, religious clergy, environmental activists, and even a group of Pennsylvania Quakers. The project aims to bring people of different cultural backgrounds together in creative means that will hopefully foster an environment of acceptance and peace.

Harvey, who was born and raised in St. Louis, went off to New York City as a young man to further his education in art. He soon made his way down to Oaxaca, Mexico, where he started an art program for youth in need of education and friendship. Harvey remarked that the racial tensions between those of Spanish and indigenous descent made it difficult for children to learn, work, or play together. In response to this, he boasted a literal open-door policy for his art program, posting a sign on the door to his home that read, “para todos los ni¤os”: for all the children.

“Down there I was ‘the rich American,’” reminisced Harvey, standing in a well-worn plaid shirt and sandals. “Being in that position, I thought, ‘How can I serve?’”

After 50 years of sharing his inspiration, vision, and love with others in New York and Mexico, Harvey made his way back to St. Louis. Since then he has immersed himself in the Peace Project and serves as head of the ongoing City Museum project, Art From Recycled Materials. The Peace Project exhibition is the marriage of these two markers of cultural advancement.

The traveling exhibition showcases some of the most profound results of the Project’s work, featuring artists from as far away as England, Mexico, and Germany and right here in St. Louis.

Artist, musician, poet, and philosopher Johonet Halsted Carpenter displays her book, The Well of Understanding, which deals with the convergence of humanity, faith, and the natural world. Poet Larry E. Stephey offers his recent work, entitled “NINE ELEVEN.” Patrick Ritchey adds his life-sized sculpture of “His Holiness the Dalai Llama,” a work entirely created out of discarded materials. A set of quilts made by the Pennsylvanian Quaker’s HARP coalition (Help Arts Reach Peace) is displayed next to fabric paintings made by youth at a Clayton area detention center. Marsha Glazi‚re showcases her works of sculpture, fabric, and photography that have brought her much recognition in the search for global peace. Other displays include works from elementary school students, religious clergy, environmentalists, and professional writers.

The works are arranged intermittently across the sunlit loft, with little regard for the grouping of common mediums. Yet, the display as a whole gives off an air of impermanent harmony, a Buddhist philosophy that has inspired Harvey. In this way, he narrated the exhibit, floating from one object to another, pausing at each to reminisce and reflect about the stories of friendship and peace that each held.

The focus of the exhibition has much less to do with the actual artwork as it does with the inspiration behind it.

“It’s not about being nice,” said Harvey, referring to the artwork. “It’s just about being. I’m not looking for artists, I’m looking for individuals.”

Harvey, who was educated in such prestigious schools as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Parson’s School of Design in New York, says that he is intimidated by art. “It can be frightening, that word. I don’t like to say we use ‘art,’ as much as I would say we use creativity, imagination, spontaneity.”

Harvey, having spent much of his life in New York City, was especially distraught by the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in September, prompting him to open the exhibition on November 17th as an immediate response to the escalation of violence. Some of the works displayed deal specifically with the tragedy and others deal with the problem of violence as a whole.

“Tony Bennett sang of how he left his heart in San Francisco,” reflected Harvey as he stood before an unfinished sculpture of the WTC, one of his own creations. “Well I guess I left part of mine in New York.”

True, parts may lay in remembrance of the attacks of September 11th, or with the children at Columbine, or among the rubble of Oklahoma City, but many believe Harvey’s heart is in the right place and there is still a long way to go towards the realization of peace and unity.

The City Museum (231-2489) is at 701 North 15th Street. Entry is $7.50 and it’s open Wed. to Fri., 9-5 pm and Sat., Sun. 10-5pm.

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