Washington—Faces of Freedom, GoodWeave’s traveling photography exhibit on solutions to child labor in the South Asian rug industry, will be on display in Macy’s Herald Square department store on the 8th floor gallery from June 28 to July 22. The month-long exhibition follows Macy’s announcement that it is now offering customers several exclusive collections of area rugs certified child-labor-free by GoodWeave in selected stores. (Click here for more information.)
Faces of Freedom takes viewers behind the scenes of South Asia’s carpet factories and inside the lives of the children in weaving communities assisted by the nonprofit organization GoodWeave. The images, captured by human rights documentarian U. Roberto Romano, connect Macy’s customers to the ancient craft of rug making and the real-life difference that they can make by purchasing a GoodWeave certified rug. A small selection of GoodWeave certified rugs will accompany the 8th floor exhibition, providing a sample of the many beautiful designs of certified rugs available for purchase in Macy’s Fine Rug Gallery on the 9th floor.
By building awareness about child labor in the handmade rug industry and creating a certification system for child-labor-free rugs, GoodWeave has catalyzed a profound shift in the marketplace. Since 1994, more than 7.5 million carpets bearing the GoodWeave label (and its predecessor, the RugMark label) have been sold worldwide, and the number of South Asian children trapped in carpet-making work has dropped from 1 million to 250,000.
Faces of Freedom has been exhibited at more than 20 venues across the U.S., including the Miami International Airport, the World Bank, and the U.S. Russell Senate Rotunda. The full collection of images and tour calendar can be viewed at FacesofFreedom.GoodWeave.org.