2/7/01 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Martha Reineke, professor of religion and chair, Hearst Lecture Series, (319) 273-6233
Vicki Grimes, University Marketing & Public Relations, (319) 273-2761
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — “Picturing Faith: Religious Life in Government Photography, 1935-1943,” will be the topic of the Hearst Lecture Series, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in 201 Sabin Hall.
Colleen McDannell, curator of an exhibit with the same title, currently on display at UNI, will deliver the address. It is free and open to the public. McDannell is the Sterling M. McMurrin Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of History at the University of Utah.
She will discuss the role of religion in the lives of the poor during the 1930s, answering questions about how Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers interpreted the role of religion in uniting America around shared democratic ideals. McDannell's address also will cover how they portrayed religious architecture and the techniques they used to express the religious spirit of the time.
The exhibition and lecture served as the catalyst for a separate spring series at UNI, “Picturing Faith: American Religious Life Yesterday and Today,” that began in January. While at UNI, McDannell will deliver two presentations for this spin-off series. Both are open to the public, free of charge.
Saturday, Feb, 17, in a 2 p.m. gallery lecture at the UNI Museum, 3219 Hudson Rd., she will speak about the exhibition from an historian's perspective. She will explore how the photos tell a story of religious life in early 20th century America set against a backdrop of widespread poverty and an impending world war. The exhibition will run through March 9.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, McDannell will address “Religious Kitsch” during a lecture at the Hearst Center for the Arts, 304 W. Seerley Blvd. In this address, she will focus on ways people expressed their religious beliefs with items of clothing, jewelry or bumper stickers.
The “Picturing Faith” series is made possible through a grant from Humanities Iowa, with additional funding from the Grout Museum, the Hearst Center for the Arts, and, at UNI, the Meryl Norton Hearst Chair in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Department of Philosophy and Religion and the University Museum.
For more information, contact Martha Reineke, chair of the Hearst Lecture Series, at
(319) 273-6233.
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