Volunteer help wanted for “Say Their Names, Remember”

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The AGO will host a community art performance to help launch the Ai Weiwei exhibition – and we volunteers can help.

On Sunday, August 18, explains Bev Carret, Chinese-speaking participants will combine to read aloud the names of all 5,200 schoolchildren who lost their lives in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

schoolchildren of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake The performance, called “Say Their Names, Remember,” will take place over 4 hours or so, within the exhibition itself.

As the AGO’s manager of Government and Community Relations, Bev is working with community performance artist Gein Wong to plan the event.

This includes recruiting people from the community and our own AGO family to read the names.

“We’re looking for people who speak a Chinese dialect,” explains Bev. She’s enjoying a refreshing glass of water after a trip in the summer heat to deliver recruitment posters to University Settlement House and the church of St. George the Martyr – both examples of the kinds of institutions where we are spreading the word.

“Volunteers can be a big help,” she says, “in three different ways.” She ticks them off.

Do you speak a Chinese dialect yourself? – “Join us! Sign up online on the info/recruitment website [see link below] and be one of the participants.”

Do you know someone who speaks a Chinese dialect? – “Please encourage them to visit the special information/recruitment website.”

No Chinese-speaking connections, but you’d still love to help? – “Wonderful! We will need additional volunteers that day to support the event. Please contact me by email to discuss this further.”