Southwestern Adventist University to Host Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness In The Great War Exhibit

Southwestern Adventist University is proud to welcome Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War exhibit to its campus from April 8 to May 19, 2019. The exhibit will be open to the public at the Meadows Gallery in the Chan Shun Centennial Library.

Voices of Conscience is a traveling exhibit that remembers the witness of peace-minded people against the First World War (1914-1918). This witness included men and women, religious believers and secular humanitarians, political protesters and sectarian separatists. They resisted U.S. involvement in the war, the enactment of military conscription, the war bond drives, and the denial of freedom of speech under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. For this resistance many suffered community humiliation, federal imprisonment, and mob violence at the hands of a war-crusading American public. This exhibit lifts up the prophetic insights and the personal courage of World War I peace protesters, and suggests parallels to the culture of war and violence in our world today. The exhibit is organized in ten themes that encourage exploration and reflection. The theme modules surround a recreation of an Alcatraz Prison cell, the site where Hutterite conscientious objectors were punished for refusing military participation. Text and quotes provide interpretation and raise provocative questions for viewers while large-scale graphics and photomurals immerse visitors in the historical experience of witnessing for peace during “total war.”

Southwestern Adventist University is proud to bring the nationally touring exhibit to Johnson County and is thankful for exhibit support from Humanities Texas in Austin, the Walmart Distribution Center based in Cleburne, Texas, and Ulrich Barns Builders, LLC based in Cleburne, Texas. Self-guided tours will be available during the normal operating hours of the Chan Shun Centennial Library. 

Voices of Conscience was developed by a collaborative team of historians and museum professionals from the Kauffman Museum at Bethel College in North Newton, KS. The exhibit is based on Kauffman Museum’s 30 years of experience in designing and building award-winning projects with a specific focus on innovative approaches to traveling exhibits. For more information about the exhibit, visit VoicesofConscienceExhibit.org

Location:

Meadows Gallery

Chan Shun Centennial Library

101 West Magnolia Street

Keene, Texas 76059