Thursday opening at Parachute Factory Gallery at Erector Square

Parachute Factory
Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
The Seven Billionth Person Project
Sept. 23, 2010—Jan. 31, 2011
Opening reception: Thurs., Sept. 23, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

In the next 1,000 days, the seven billionth person will be born … What would you tell him or her about the world we live in?

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, in partnership with The Parachute Factory, Proof: Media for Social Justice, and the Yale World Fellows Program, presents The Seven Billionth Person Project. It has been estimated that the seven billionth person will be born somewhere in the world in October 2012. The Seven Billionth Person Project, a participatory exhibition curated by Valerie Belanger and Leora Kahn, asks: What would you tell him or her about the world we live in?

The exhibition will be on display at The Parachute Factory, Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven, from Sept. 23, 2010 through Jan. 31, 2011, with special City-Wide Open Studios hours on Sat. and Sun., Sept. 25 and 26, from 1—5 p.m. A reception is scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 23, from 5—7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

The genesis of The Seven Billionth Person Project was Ali Hakan Altinay’s essay “1000 days to the 7th Billion Human: What Do We Tell Her?” which was published by The Huffington Post in Oct. 2009. Altinay was the 2009 Duncan Greenberg World Fellow at the Yale World Fellows Program and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Belanger, director of programs and admissions at the Yale World Fellows Program, said her long-term goal in putting together The Seven Billionth Person Project is to build interest in the question: What would you tell him or her about the world we live in? and to collect submissions — answers — from around the world to “share” with the latest human arrival.

The Seven Billionth Person Project is presented by The Parachute Factory (a collaboration of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, and Community Services Network of Greater New Haven), Proof: Media for Social Justice, and Yale World Fellows Program.