The Academy of Catholic Thought and Imagination will host an art exhibit and faculty presentations from Cecilia González-Andrieu and Amy Woodson-Boulton on Nov. 1, 2022, in the William H. Hannon Library, Von der Ahe Family Suite from 5 – 8:30 p.m.
“The ACTI Fellows Program supports scholarship that illumines the ongoing dialogue between faith and culture that is the essence of the 2,000-year-old Catholic intellectual and imaginative traditions,” said John Sebastian, vice president for Mission and Ministry. “In their own unique ways, both González-Andrieu and Woodson-Boulton use their work to explore how religion’s legacy is affected by the progress of science.”
In González-Andrieu’s presentation, “Death of An Artist: Preserving the Legacy of John August Swanson,” she will examine the question: What is the role of a university at the loss of a significant cultural figure? Responding to the passing of artist John August Swanson, an LMU team assembled to imagine new ways of preserving the artist’s legacy for active engagement with future generations of students, scholars, and art lovers.
Amy Woodson-Boulton will present the project “How Victorians Moved (Us) Away from Nature by Studying ‘Primitive’ Religion.’” Woodson will address the dilemma of whether Victorians wanted to use the past to regenerate modern art, architecture, and design, or whether they wanted to prove the value of modern science and industry, as many Victorians defined themselves against a familiar stereotype: “primitive” societies who were allegedly part of nature and whose art and science was only worship and magic.
In collaboration, the William H. Hannon Library will be hosting a pop-up exhibit and a new digital collection. The John August Swanson Collection is a growing digital archive for the study of the artist’s vast body of work. Swanson, who died in 2021, was an internationally renowned painter and printmaker whose vibrant works reflected his optimistic interpretation of Christianity for the modern world and his commitment to social justice. A few months before his passing, he received the prestigious President’s Award, the highest non-degree recognition that LMU can bestow. The pop-up exhibit will be featuring highlights from the John August Swanson Collection will be open to the public on Tuesday, Nov. 1 only, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
“The upcoming presentations promise to enrich and complicate our appreciation of the complex interplay between faith and reason and between spirituality and technology in ways that seem especially fitting as we contemplate the situation of our own Catholic university right here in Silicon Beach,” said Sebastian.
