Above & Beyond MemorialAbove & Beyond is not open to the public at this time. Stay tuned for more information on where you can see this incredible installation next!
More information on the huge task of taking down Above and Beyond.
Support the Above & Beyond Campaign or see a list of donors
On Memorial Day 2001, the museum added a stirring and spectacular new exhibit to its already highly praised fine art collection. The work of art, an immense 10 x 40 foot sculpture entitled Above and Beyond, is comprised of imprinted dog tags, one for each of the more than 58,000 service men and women who died in the Vietnam War. Above & Beyond is the first new permanent Vietnam War memorial, other than The Wall in Washington, D.C., to list all those killed in action. Above & Beyond at the National Veterans Art Museum is a singular honor for Chicago. It was even the subject of a question on the TV show, Jeopardy, on Jan. 10, 2011.
When visitors first entered the museum, heard a sound like wind chimes coming from above them and their attention was drawn upward 24 feet to the ceiling of the two-story high atrium. There saw tens of thousands of metal dog tags, spaced evenly one inch apart, suspended from fine lines which will allow them to move like a living thing with the shifts in air currents.
Photo from Chicago Tribune.
Photo courtesy of Jeanine Hill-Soldner
Search for a name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. online:
