Welcoming Guest Lecturers From Around the World
The Jane M.G. Foster Distinguished Lecture Series at Shawnee State brings world renowned authors, leaders and experts in a variety of academic fields to campus each year. The series is made possible through a fund established by Jane M.G. Foster, one of only two women to graduate Cornell University in 1918.
Nominations from SSU faculty are accepted by the Distinguished Lecture Series Committee at least twice a year. An email will be sent out to all faculty from the Chair of the Committee seeking nominations for a specific academic year. Within that email, a link to the nomination form can be found.
Contact Pablo Salinas at psalinas@shawnee.edu for additional information or questions.
Mexican Muralism: A Canvas for the Cultural Imaginary in Latin America
A Lecture by Alberto Torres
Director of the Ortiz Gurdián Foundation in Nicaragua
Wednesday, October 16
3:30 PM
Morris University Center, Room 214
Mexican Muralism, since its beginnings in 1922, has exerted an evident influence in many latitudes, even to the present day. In Latin America, this artistic movement became evident by expanding its influence in many countries in Central and South America as part of the common cultural identification with social transformations throughout the 20th century. Nicaragua does not escape these influences and social changes and in fact becomes the country where the second mural movement in Latin America takes shape.
Two elements were key to this, the figure of Rodrigo Peñalba due to his passion as an artist and teacher; and the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution which, upon the fall of the Somoza dictatorship, had a direct and forceful influence in highlighting the new social reality of development for the country and of course for art.
About the Speaker
Alberto Torres is a Nicaraguan painter, printmaker and academic. Torres was a prolific muralist in Managua during the early post-revolutionary era, painting in both public and private spaces. He won a Fulbright Scholarship in 2006, with the special objective of promoting knowledge in the discipline of printmaking in Nicaragua. He earned his M.F.A. in Printmaking from Ohio University in Athens in 2009, then returned to Nicaragua where he taught at American University and ran a printmaking studio.
He currently works as Director of the Art Centers of the Ortiz Gurdián Foundation in Nicaragua and actively works on his pictorial and graphic work as a teacher of mural painting for young people, adults, and children. At the same time, he collaborates in community mural art projects.
Presented as part of the 2023-2024 Jane M.G. Foster Distinguished Lecture Series. The community is invited to attend this lecture, which is free of charge.