Accompanying the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts' current exhibition, this two-day symposium examines the creative contributions of American artists and citizens before, during, and after World War I. Conversations will consider new scholarship on the relationship between military conflict and visual culture, the creative deployment of everyday citizens in the pursuit of national agendas through art and art-making initiatives, evolving racial and gender roles during the early twentieth century, and the complicated interminglings of memory and mythology in understanding our own history. Saturday afternoon Collection Tours with PAFA’s cultural partners will expand the conversation into other disciplines through the examination of special World War I-related collections around the city in smaller groups.

WHEN: March 11, 9 a.m. - March 12, 1 p.m.

WHERE: PAFA, Historic Landmark Building, 118 North Broad St., Philadelphia

COST: $50 members; $75 general admission

REGISTER: Please call 215-391-4806 or e-mail ehamilton@pafa.org

Symposium Schedule

Saturday, March 11, 2017

9 a.m. Welcome Remarks

9:30 a.m. Patriotic Culture in the United States during the First World War | Jennifer Keene, Professor, Chair, Department of History, Chapman University

10:30 a.m. The American Iconosphere in World War I | Pearl James, Associate Professor of English, University of Kentucky

11:30 a.m. Imagining Belgium: George Bellows and the Bryce Report | David Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University

12:30 p.m. Lunch on your own

1:30 p.m. Panel: The Poster as Propaganda and Promise | Anne Knutson, Independent Curator & Pearl James, Associate Professor of English, University of Kentucky

2:30 p.m. ‘Yet a Shameful Land’: World War I Through the Eyes of the Black Press | Amy Kirschke, Professor, Chair, Department of Art and Art History, University of North Carolina Wilmington

• 3:30 p.m. Tours of Other Museum Collections (Tours begin at 4 p.m.; Walking time included)
• Independence Seaport Museum
• Historical Society of Pennsylvania
• Library Company of Philadelphia
• Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians
• National Constitution Center
• National Museum of American Jewish History

5:30 p.m. World War I and American Art Reception (World War I and American Art exhibition open)

Sunday, March 12, 2017

10 a.m. Coffee and Check In

10:30 a.m. World War I in Myth and Memory | Jennifer Wingate, Associate Professor, Dept. of International Cultural Studies, Fine Arts, and Foreign Language, St. Francis College

11:30 a.m. Panel: Curating the Art of World War I | Robert Cozzolino, Patrick and Aimee Butler Curator of Paintings, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Anne Knutson, Independent Curator, and David Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art, Wake Forest University

12:30 p.m. Closing Remarks

World War I and American Art exhibition open until 5 p.m.