Exhibit: Playing For Keeps: Children & War In Africa

Playing For Keeps: Children & War In Africa, a traveling photography exhibit by Martin Lueders will open at Branigan Cultural Center on Friday June 6 during the 1st Friday Ramble from 5 – 7 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display through July 26, 2008.

Martin Lueders is an award-winning, internationally recognized, freelance photographer. A 1990 graduate from Governors State University (IL) with a Bachelors Degree in Photography, Lueders relocated to London, England, to pursue overseas assignments. Since then he has traveled to 52 countries, and relocated to several different continents.

For the past decade Lueders has specialized in documenting emergency humanitarian crises and long-term development and reconstruction efforts throughout Africa, Asia, S.E. Asia, the Balkans and Central America. His clients include Catholic Relief Services, CARE and Scottish International Relief.

In 1999, he was commissioned by the United States Agency For Development (USAID) to produce a B&W book and an exhibit of photographs entitled Playing For Keeps: Children & War In Africa. The book and traveling exhibit documents the plight of child soldiers and war-affected youth in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and Mozambique. It also illustrates subsequent efforts to rehabilitate and re-integrate them back into society through a myriad of programs.

The Cultural Center, 501 N. Main, is located at the north end of the downtown mall. Parking is available at intersection of Water and Hadley streets. There is no charge and galleries are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information contact the Branigan Cultural Center at (575) 541-2154 or visit the Center’s web site at http://museums.las-cruces.org.