Chess Pieces, all white and no black, dominate the middle of the floor at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Edison State College, in Fort Myers.
Imagine Peace.
What do you wish for? Add it to the tree.
With maps you can stamp, a giant chess set you can use, broken globes that need mending and trees hung with tags carrying visitors’ wishes, Imagine Peace, a new exhibition at Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida, gently prods art lovers to consider peace. 
Most of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery is white, filled with the light of one art piece, dotted with the colors of maps hug on the wall and the green of trees filled with white tags.
John Lennon’s “Imagine” plays as part of a video explaining Yoko’s OnoChord and her Imagine Peace Tower, a shaft of light built in Iceland and lit at various times of the year.
A view of the Iceland Imagine Peace Tower shown in the 20-minute video.
Much of the exhibit, which continues through March 29 in Florida before heading elsewhere in the world, asks visitors to join in.
Maps of the United States and the world are stamped with the words “Imagine Peace.” Afghanistan, the Middle East and major American cities are black with stamps.
What would you use to glue the globe back together. Elmers glue and duct tape are two options.
Add a wish to the trees. The tags will be gathered and buried in the ground around the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland.
Help glue broken globes together.
Play chess — but with the challenge of using only white pieces.
A video explains why there is a bowl of pocket flashlights at the door. Use them to flash the OnoChord and say I love you. One flash for I. Two for Love. Three for You.
It’s fanciful. But I walked around for the hour I was there with a lump in my throat.
Imagine peace.
A combination of light and prisms used as Yoko Ono explored how to create the Imagine Peace Light.
© Text and photos Mary K. Tilghman
A Day Away Travel 
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