A lecture series on Norman Rockwell’s famous Four Freedoms paintings will be the final hurrah for a local advocacy group that shined a light on town finances while promoting civic engagement in Avon.
The paintings were done in 1943 during World War II and helped promote an agenda supporting human rights by President Franklin Roosevelt. Rockwell was inspired by a speech Roosevelt gave in 1941 calling for freedom of religion and speech along with freedom from fear and want.
“Those paintings were influential in creating a sense of what those freedoms were about,” said Stephanie Plunkett, chief curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. “Rockwell placed the freedoms in a way most people would understand them, he humanized them.”
In a lecture series organized by the Avon Free Public Library and starts next month, speakers will discuss those four freedoms and the ideas the freedoms represent. The series will be held with financial assistance from the now-defunct Avon Taxpayers Association. When the group disbanded earlier this year, it had about $500 in its bank account and gave the money to the library for a program on the Four Freedoms. Flo Stahl, the association’s former president, said the series is an appropriate use for the funds because those freedoms are key to the success of groups like it.
“I always thought the taxpayers association was about something broader than tax relief,” said Stahl, who now lives in Massachusetts. “We encompassed speaking truth to power and transparency. In other words, citizens’ rights. The paintings remind people of what this country stands for.”
The association hosted events where people could learn about town finance issues, advocated against budgets when the group thought they were too high and published an annual compilation of town employees’ salaries. Stahl frequently spoke at town government meetings.
“I think the series honors Flo’s courage as a taxpayers association leader,” said Tina Panik, the library’s reference and adult services manager.
The paintings may be more than 70 years old, but interest in those freedoms is heightened because of current events, Panik said.
“I had a similar idea two years ago but could not pull it together,” Panik said. “But now these are topics everyone is happy to talk about. The timing was right.”
The lecture series is free and will be held in the library. Plunkett will give the first lecture on Dec. 3. She will speak at 2 p.m. at the library about the history of the Four Freedoms paintings and how their role has evolved in the years since they were made.
Lecturers will put the freedoms they are speaking about in the context of recent events and issues. Robbin Smith, a political science professor at Central Connecticut State University, will talk on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. about recent free speech debates and what separates protected and unprotected speech.
The lecture on Dec. 18 is on freedom of religion and will focus on Islamophobia. Sami Aziz, a consultant and speaker who specializes in educating the public about Islam, will give that presentation, which starts at 7 p.m.
William Foster will speak at 2 p.m. on Jan. 13 on the freedom from want, while Karen Ritzenhoff, a professor of communications at CCSU, will give the lecture on freedom from fear on Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. Panik said a discussion will follow each presentation.
