Donna Ferrato Brings Domestic Violence Awareness to SUNY Plattsburgh

by Emma Peer, Saranac Review 17 Editorial Assistant

Saranac Review is proud to publish work that we feel is representative and inclusive, that is reflective of all people; the work you will read in issue 17  reveals a spectrum of love and loss, of beauty and devastation. We are also proud to operate out of an institution that has brought work like Donna Ferrato’s “Behind Closed Doors” to our campus, as it is work representative of so many women’s struggles. 

In speaking with Plattsburgh State Art Museum director Tonya Cribb, we wanted to know the history behind why this work was gifted to an institution like SUNY Plattsburgh and why she believes showcasing work like this on our college campus could be impactful. One of the biggest takeaways Cribb hoped students would have from the exhibit was heightened awareness of the substantial risk young women are put at in their interpersonal relationships from the ages of 18-24. According to the former National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (now known as Project Opal), 43% of women who date in college experience some form of abusive behaviors from their partners, and “women aged 16-24 experience domestic violence at the highest rate of any age group, at nearly 3 times the national average.” College-aged women are more likely to be subjected to abuse in their relationships than any other group. Art like Donna Ferrato’s—raw, provocative, real—are paramount in helping individuals identify signs of abusive behavior in domestic relationships.

While much of Ferrato’s work today, from her art itself to her activism, centers around domestic violence, it was not always the focus of her work. On her I Am Unbeatable campaign’s website, Ferrato says, “Domestic violence did not threaten my childhood. Nor did it intrude into my world until 1981, when, on assignment for a magazine, I saw a man hit his wife. I was unprepared for his violence—it shattered the belief I’d been raised with that home is a refuge from the chaos of life.” Equal parts inspired and horrified, Ferrato decided to use her talent to shed light on the ever increasing domestic violence epidemic within our country.

Though for many of us the domestic violence cases we hear about primarily consist of stories reported on the news or in a Netflix documentary series, it is a horrible reality for so many women–specifically young adult women–within the U.S. and globally. We live in a time when our bodily autonomy is still up for debate. We still fear going for a run or walk home alone without carrying some sort of protection. We still have to stay vigilant and remind ourselves that we are more likely to be raped by someone we know and trust than by a stranger. The threat to women's lives is persistent, specifically in our interpersonal relationships. 

Featuring Ferrato’s work in our inaugural issue, and exhibiting it on our college campus, is crucial in shining a light on people who are disproportionately affected by domestic and interpersonal violence.