Wende Museum of the Cold War Promotes Community Dialogue About Current Events

L.A. museum focused on Eastern Bloc offers historical perspective in Art - Past - Present discussion series

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May 25, 2017, 09:08 ET

CULVER CITY, Calif., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As U.S.-Russia tensions mount, The Wende Museum of the Cold War offers Art – Past – Present, a new discussion series about how art and history shape our world. "In an era with so much polarization and so few facts, we offer a space for informed conversations," said Chief Curator Joes Segal.

Art – Past – Present allows community members to talk with renowned artists whose work deals with history. Artist Ken Gonzales-Day and contemporary-art curator Brenda G. Williams will speak on Tuesday, June 6, at 6 p.m.

Shadowlands (2017), courtesy of Ken Gonzales-Day and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles Gallery.

Since the series launched in March, Art – Past – Present has featured artists Farrah Karapetian, Chris Wyrick, Katya Tylevich, and Bill Ferehawk, who is working on a video installation about the Malta Conference, the symbolic end of the Cold War.

"Public forums for discussion are essential, and we have an important role to play as an institution that can offer accurate historical perspective. Art and history illuminate and help us understand the realities confronting us," curator Segal said.

"The conversations at Art – Past – Present have been electric," said Justinian Jampol, the museum's founder and executive director.

The Wende Museum holds an unparalleled collection of artifacts and personal histories from Cold War-era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and has advanced scholarship about the period since 2002.

This fall, the Wende will move to a new home at the iconic former National Guard Armory Building at 10808 Culver Blvd. The expansive Armory campus will make the previously under-the-radar institution a community resource for knowledge and culture. The Wende will open at the Armory in November with a gala celebration, an exhibition on Cold War Spaces, and a community open house.

Art – Past – Present is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The Wende Museum is currently located at 5741 Buckingham Parkway in Culver City, California. The Museum is open to the public every Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call 310-216-1600 or go to www.wendemuseum.org.

SOURCE The Wende Museum