On Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. UW-Eau Claire will be hosting the event “They May Have Been Heroes,” at Haas Fine Arts Center in Phillips Recital Hall.  Jerry Tovo will discussing his photographic portrait series of homeless veterans in America.

The presentation is in conjuration with  exhibit “Dust on My Boots” being displayed at Heyde Center of Arts in Chippewa Falls on Oct. 3.  Jyl Kelly, associate professor of art & design at Eau Claire, art and design student Phillip Schladweiler and community artist Lori Chilifone curate it.

Kelly said that the show is to open a dialogue with veterans in our community. It has been put together because there are many veterans on campus, and she has worked with several of them in her art studio classes. Schladweiler is a former art student and an Iraq veteran who came up with the name “Dust on my Boots.”

As for the presentation Kelly said  “The discussion we are going to have Thursday night is about people making the transition from military life to civilian life.”

Tovo is a veteran artist and is a photographer.  He was invited to come and talk about his project “They Might Have Been Heroes.”

Tovo’s photographs have been taken all over the U.S. of  veterans that have comeback after fighting in wars and now have found themselves homeless.

“It is discussion we need to have in our community,” Kelly said.  “Just because we have so many veterans coming back from these conflicts that we are sending them to.  They are ending up in our community and they have something new that has change about their lives and people don’t really understand that.”

Lori Chilifone said that Tovo has been providing a voice to the quiet group of veterans in the U.S.

“Through his photography project They May have Been Heroes, Jerry Tovo has been giving voice to quiet,very real and surprisingly large number of US Veterans that are Homeless,” she said.

She said much like Tovo’s work, Phillip’s vision for “Dust On My Boots” aims to bring awareness to the realities of war on the human psyche.

 “It is to help bridge the inevitable gaps for our soldiers transitioning to civilian life,” she said.

Christos Theo art professor at Eau Claire said on the portrait photos he has seen that the photos of the veterans show a lot of untold stories on the facial expressions and the eyes.

The presentation Thursday has invited veterans from all over the Midwest for the discussion.