JCA Signature Series Lecture: Heidi Cook, Race, Literacy, and the Narrative of New Immigration in Croatian Immigrant Churches

Heidi Cook gives a talk at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall on Wednesday, October 28, at 7:30 PM. It's part of the JCA Signature Series, and it's free and open to the public, so you don't need a ticket to get in.

Cook's lecture centers on the murals of two early twentieth-century Croatian immigrant churches: St. John the Baptist in Kansas City, Kansas, and St. Nicholas in Millvale, Pennsylvania. She looks at how these murals became platforms for the conversations happening around American immigrants and immigration at the time. The talk examines how an artist and a parish priest came together at both sites to create images that sought to negotiate ideas about race and labor, and to quell American concerns about Slavic immigration.

Cook is an assistant professor of art history at Truman State University and earned her PhD in the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the relationship between tradition—folk culture in particular—and modernism and modernity in the art, design, and museum history of Central and Eastern Europe. She recently published the essay "Maksimilijan Vanka's Beautiful Jela Wove Three Wreaths" in Art and State in Modern Central Europe (University of Zagreb, 2024).

If you can't make it in person, there's a free live stream available. Otherwise, the talk is at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall on the Butler Community Campus in the Midtown Arts District, starting at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, October 28. It's free and open to the public, no ticket required.