Next week will be the last chance Western students have to view a war exhibit on campus that tells stories of fallen soldiers and triumphant victories.

Cecelia Kane of Decatur, Ga., started the Hand to Hand Project when bombs dropped over Baghdad on March 20, 2003.

The exhibit is currently displayed on the second floor of the fine arts center. It’s last day at Western is Oct. 28. It will then move to its final destination in Rutland, Vt.

In response to the war in Iraq, Kane started a series of paintings on cotton gloves. She painted a news story about the war on them each day, she said.

“Hands just seem to represent so much of people,” Kane said about using gloves for the paintings.

She said she was going to quit painting the gloves in 2006, but her artist friends wouldn’t let her, and they started helping her paint. With the help of her friends, she expanded the project to include more than 100 artists as a continuing community dialog.

Lexington senior Kandice Kilcoyne is an art student.

“I like how it’s pretty much a journal of the progression of the entire war,” she said of the exhibit.

Kane said people may believe it’s an “anti-war” art exhibit, but it’s a response to the war — some of the work opposes the war and some honors soldiers.

Each person who works on the exhibit is assigned a six-day work week. Kane said she has artists signed up through July of 2010.

Now, Kane and the other artists are struggling to find new ideas.

“News is getting harder to find,” she said. “Some people have made gloves about no news.”

Kane has artists working on the exhibit all across the U.S. and in other places, such as Baghdad, where some soldiers are contributing artwork.

“I was afraid the soldiers would take offense,” Kane said after showing her exhibit to a group of soldiers coping with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Louisville sophomore Josh Gonzales will be commissioned into the Army when he graduates in 2012.

“I pass by the exhibit Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and it’s definitely an emotional experience to see all the fallen soldiers,” he said. “That could be me some day. Who knows?”

Kane said she hasn’t had bad reactions from veterans, either.

Gonzales said he wouldn’t imagine veterans having negative reactions to the exhibit.

“I think any veteran has a good amount of respect for anyone that is serving in Iraq,” he said. “Whether you are enlisted or commissioned as an officer in the Army, you are serving and protecting your country, and that’s all it stands for.”