In the center of the basement gallery of the Christian Petersen Art Museum, 17 helium-filled birthday balloons hang aloft in the air. The balloons don’t look much like art. But each of those balloons represents a birthday that the victims of last week’s shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School will never experience. As time goes by, the balloons will lose their helium and drift to the ground, symbolizing the great loss of life that accompanies the tragic events of a mass shooting.  

The balloons are Des Moines artist Jami Milne’s piece “The answer comes when we consider what pressure is”, which is part of the the ReACT Gallery’s newest pop-up exhibition “Thoughts and Prayers: Mass Shootings in the U.S.”

“Thoughts and Prayers” opened today, exactly one week after the Parkland, Florida shooting. The nation is still grappling with the deaths of the students and teachers, and as people search for answers, University Museums has created a space where students can transform their feelings into actions. The exhibit will remain open until March 9.

“It’s not necessarily different, but it’s quite odd for us to put on an exhibit that we planned and executed in less than a week,” said Savanna Falter, an intern at University Museums. Falter assisted museum employees in selecting the artists, reaching out to professors for comments to go with the artwork, and creating the interactive portions of the exhibit.

Most University Museums exhibits take months to plan and execute, but museum staff created this pop-up exhibit to help students process and react to last Wednesday’s events. The topic had been conceptualized around the time of the Las Vegas shooting last October, but the museums’ employees wanted more time and resources to dedicate to the exhibit.

Another piece represents death in a different way. “It’s a Long Way Down: For Ana” by Jane Gilmor, consists of multiple metal bars penetrating a metal structure and was created after Gilmor’s friend was murdered. Falter said the piece expresses the more personal nature of losing someone to murder, and “really hones in on the individual”.

On another wall of the gallery is the “In Memoriam” section, which displays photos of various memorials created after college mass shootings, including the shooting that occurred at the University of Iowa in 1991. Next to “In Memoriam” is a reaction wall where students can anonymously post what they are feeling.

“Once it’s on the wall, it’s nice to see, ‘Oh, other people are feeling what I’m feeling,’” Falter said. “We can all agree that something needs to change, but we’re not in agreement on what that change needs to be.”

The key part of the ReACT Gallery is to inspire people to take action, and the exhibit contains multiple resources for students to take with them. These resources include contact forms for representatives and senators, resources for counseling and self-care, and information surrounding upcoming protests and marches.

On Friday, March 24, a “March for our Lives” will be taking place in Washington, D.C., with a more localized version occurring at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines. On April 20, students across the country will be participating in a school walk-out in an effort to demand action from legislators across the country. Many of these protests are much more student-focused than past protests related to gun violence.

“I think it’s because the students are very, very vocal,” Falter said. “They’re supposed to rely on the adults, but the adults aren’t doing enough.”