NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA–  A new exhibit in the National WWII museum is open.

Affected by the poignant chaos, in 1945 an American clergyman by the name of Frederick McDonald was serving in the army chaplain corp. Europe was in ruin.  McDonald would reach down and collect the broken glass from churches bombed and then mail them home.

Kimberly Guise is the WWII Museum Curator and says, “we have accounts of soldiers recalling glass being everywhere. People talk about the street just sparkling and glittering from all the shattered glass.”

McDonald’s noble mission was to construct beauty out what was shattered and broken.

“He used these mementos of the war to try to process and inspire a global peace movement,” says Guise.

The exhibit is on the second floor museum in the Memorial Pavilion.  it’s called Remembered Light: Glass Fragments from World War Two, the McDonald windows.   25 pieces of art are on display.  In 1999, 13 artists from around the world constructed glass windows and each artist was inspired by McDonald’s vision and choice to see a beautiful hope in the destruction of war.

McDonald passed away in 2002 but not before he was able to advise  the artists on the art.   He did live to see a few of the pieces finished and was quite pleased.

Kimberly Guise is inspired by the exhibit and says, “they’ve taken McDonalds stories and  pieced it all together for the public. So it’s a little bit of a different approach to the subject of war. One that uses the pieces from WWII to interpret the war in a completely new way.”

The exhibit will be open until April 26th.