BY KAREN BOSSICK

If we can imagine a more just and life-giving world, we can work together to bring it into being, says Ketchum writer Sarah Sentilles.

That’s the idea behind the creation of a limited-edition poster, “Let There Be,” that features a passage from Sentilles’ book “Draw Your Weapons.” The book recounts the true stories of a conscientious objector during World War II and a former prison guard at Abu Ghraib and the way both created art in a response to war.

And the passage in question asserts: “Let there be light. Let there be no war. Let there be weapons laid down and never lifted. Let there be no wailing. Let there be music. Let there be cameras. Let there be photographs. Let there be songbirds. Let there be no battles on the whole globe. Let there be repair. Let there be grief for all bodies. Let there be language. Let there be good. Let there be only good. Let there be no reason to look away.”

Join a livestreamed conversation with Alan Pesky, whose Lee Pesky Learning Foundation is collaborating with Sentilles and artists Anna Fidler and Heather Watkins on the poster.

The conversation, hosted by the Sun Valley Museum of Arts, will be livestreamed online at 6 p.m. tonight--Monday, Feb. 1--via Crowdcast. Attendance is free, but participant must pre-register through SVMoA’s website at svmoa.org to receive the link to the event.

The conversation, part of SVMoA’s BIG IDEA project Deeds Not Word: Women Working for Change, will be hosted by The Museum’s Curator of Visual Arts Courtney Gilbert.

The Let There Be project was dreamed up by Alan and Wendy Pesky to benefit two Idaho nonprofits: The Alliance of Idaho, which protects the rights of immigrants, and the Lee Pesky Learning Center, which works with students and others to understand and overcome obstacles to learning.

Alan Pesky loved the final passage of “Draw Your Weapons” and asked if they might turn those words into art.

“The idea was to capture the transformative power of words and images and to remind people the world is made and can be unmade and remade,” said Sentilles, who is the executive director of The Alliance.

Artist Mika Aono Boyd screen-printed a limited series of 100 images. The first hundred people to donate $1,000 will receive one of the limited series of 100 posters and a copy of Draw Your Weapons. The tax-deductible donations will benefit The Alliance and Lee Pesky Learning Center.

Each poster measures 30 inches by 22 inches and will be signed by Boyd, Fidler, Sentilles, and Watkins. Framed editions are also available for an additional cost. A smaller printed version of the poster will be sent to those who donate $46.

For more information or to make a donation, visit www.lplearningcenter.org/give/let-there-be/.  Donors may also contact Sarah Sentilles directly: sarah@sentilles.com.

The posters will also be available at Sun Valley Museum of Art as part of the exhibition “Deeds Not Words: Women Making Change.” SVMoA will receive 10% of the proceeds from every poster acquired through this exhibition.