"Kids when they're five don't make up stories like that." "We'd had sex before, and I didn't see it as rape." "You feel you must have done something wrong." These are the voices of survivors of sexual assault, and Jason Dilley, a San Francisco--based artist, believes they are too seldom heard. So he has given them a dramatic public hearing in a new art exhibit on its way to Cornell University Nov. 11-24.

"Unheard Voices" features 11 facial castings and one full-body casting from survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Each casting is accompanied by an audiotaped three-minute account that visitors can hear over headphones. Four of the castings and oral histories are from women living in the Ithaca area and were made this fall in the ceramics studio in Cornell's Willard Straight Hall.

"Unheard Voices" made its national premiere on Oct. 21 at Ithaca College's Handwerker Gallery, where it will be on display through Nov. 2. Then, it will again be shown at Cornell's Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery Nov. 11-24. The exhibit is free and open to the public at both locations. The Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery is located on the main floor; hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday. The public is invited to an opening reception at the gallery on Nov. 11, 4:30-6 p.m.; Dilley is scheduled to attend.

"Unheard Voices" was brought to Ithaca largely by Andrea Parrot, Cornell associate professor of human service studies and nationally known expert on acquaintance and date rape and their prevention.

Last year, after Dilley read Parrot's book Sexual Assault on Campus: The Problem and the Solution -- in which she writes that one in four American college women are victims of sexual assault but less than one percent of these assaults are reported -- he called her and described his idea for "Unheard Voices" as one way to break the silence. He explained that it would be modeled on his exhibit then (and still) on tour, "Project Face to Face," featuring plaster castings from people afflicted with AIDS.

When "Project Face to Face" came to Utica, N.Y., this past spring, Parrot went to see it -- and vowed to bring "Unheard Voices" to Ithaca, sight unseen, as soon as Dilley could complete it.

Whether from AIDS patients or the sexually abused, the castings are "a powerful way to send a message and to spark dialogue about an issue that is difficult to talk about," Parrot said. "The 'Unheard Voices' display can educate people on a much deeper, much more intimate level than traditional sexual assault prevention programs."

Parrot said the show's Ithaca debut has been the result of "a monumental joint collaboration," including Ithaca College, Ithaca Rape Crisis, the Child Sexual Abuse Project and the Cornell organization she co-founded and chairs, Cornell Advocates for Rape Education (CARE).

"Unheard Voices" will celebrate not only the courage of sexual assault victims, but the 10th anniversary of CARE, an advisory committee formed in 1986 "to work toward a community free of sexual exploitation and violence."

According to Nina Cummings, Cornell's sexual assault education coordinator, when CARE began in 1986, "Only a handful of people were acknowledging acquaintance rape on college campuses. Cornell was one of the first places to educate students about these issues, not because they were more common here but because people were willing to listen. Over the years, the state of the art in terms of rape prevention education has changed, and a lot of that leadership has come from Cornell."

And from Parrot. One of the nation's leading authorities on date and acquaintance rape, she has discussed campus sexual assault and CARE's prevention efforts on such television programs as "Larry King Live," "CBS This Morning," "Good Morning America," "Face the Nation," and "The Oprah Winfrey Show." And she has written about, or been cited on, these issues for such publications as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsday, USA Today and Time, U.S. News & World Report, Redbook and Ms. magazines.

Parrot urged all members of the Cornell community to attend the exhibit and return with a friend during its two-week run in Willard Straight Hall. She added that students can be trained to serve as docents or lead "facilitated viewings," in which groups from high schools, colleges and other institutions take guided tours preceded and followed by mediated discussions.

For more information about "Unheard Voices" or CARE, call Nina Cummings at (607) 255-4782.