Interdependence Day Hexagon Project

Interdependence Day Hexagon Project returns to highlight global connectedness

GIA MAZUR / PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Each year on July 4, the country celebrates the independence it declared.

On Friday, Scranton celebrates its interdependence with the rest of the world.

Now in its tenth year, the Interdependence Day Hexagon Project takes place during downtown’s First Friday monthly art walk.

The interactive exhibit kicks off with yarn bombing, live music by Brenda Fernandes, raffles and more from 6 to 9 p.m. at Library Express at Marketplace at Steamtown. The project remains on display throughout September.

The center of the event features hexagons designed by area students and community groups, as well as some submissions from around the globe.

Beth Burkhauser, artist educator and founder of Interdependence Hexagon Project, explained the hexagons represent the people and cultures of the entire world.

“It’s the importance of being ourselves, not isolated, but interconnected with rights and responsibilities as citizens of a local community and a global society,” Ms. Burkhauser said.

The hexagons, created in various artistic mediums, infinitely connect and serve as the perfect representation of how citizens of the world exist, Ms. Burkhauser said.

Submissions came from local groups and schools, like Lackawanna River Corridor Association and Scranton, Riverside and Abington Heights school districts, but also faraway places, including England, Egypt and Haiti.

Each hexagon is unique to the person or group that created it and each represents a theme, such as social justice or environmental, human, women’s and animal rights, democracy and more. The project makes room for individual creativity, while it highlights feelings shared by all.

“With all the hexagons in one space, interconnecting, the viewer can see the beauty of expression connected to people all over the world,” Ms. Burkhauser said.

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