Steve Brodner, “51st State,” 2003. ©Steve Brodner. All rights reserved.
Stockbridge, MA, April 2, 2015—Norman Rockwell Museum’s Four Freedoms Forum series returns on Thursday, April 9, at 5:30 p.m., with a look at the timely issue of visual imagery and freedom of expression. The public forum will explore the role of the artist as social commentator and the relationship of imagery to the issue of free speech. Featured speakers will include: Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director/CEO, Norman Rockwell Museum; James Arpante, attorney and Professor of government, history, and business at Berkshire Community College; Steve Brodner, political illustrator; and Kevin Moran, regional vice president of news for New England Newspapers, Inc. Community conversation at the Four Freedoms Forums is free and open to the public.
James Arpante is a Professor of Government, History and Business at Berkshire Community College. An attorney at law practicing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he earned his J.D. at Syracuse University and his M.S. from American International University. A Constitutional Law specialist, has been teaching more than 40 years, and has recently been delivering a public service lecture titled “How the Constitution Applies to Our Everyday Lives”.
Steve Brodner is a New York-based graphic artist and political commentator, who has worked as a satirical illustrator since the 1970s. Currently a regular contributor to “The Nation,” “Washington Post,” “Newsweek,” “GQ,” and “Los Angeles Times,” his work can also be found illustrating political and cultural articles for such major periodicals as “Rolling Stone,” “The New York Times,” “The New Yorker,” “Esquire,” “Time,” “Playboy,” “Mother Jones,” and “The Atlantic.” Mr. Brodner is the recipient of numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, Art Directors Club, and Communication Arts; in 2000 he was honored with the Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism from Hunter College, and in 2007 he received the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society for Best Magazine Illustration of the Year. In 2008, Norman Rockwell Museum presented “Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner,” the first major museum exhibition of the illustrator’s work. Visit the artist’s website: http://stevebrodner.com
Kevin Moran is the regional vice president of news for New England Newspapers Inc. He previously served as managing editor of “The Berkshire Eagle” from 2005 to 2013. A native of Adams, Massachusetts, Moran has also served as editor of the “North Adams Transcript” and the “Brattleboro Reformer,” as well as news editor of “The York Dispatch/Sunday News” in Pennsylvania. A past president of the New England Associated Press News Executives Association, he also is a mentor for the Daniel Pearl Fellowship Foundation and an occasional voice on WAMC Public Radio. An avid fly fisherman and Nordic skier, Moran also plays guitar in the punk rock band The Damaged.
About Four Freedoms Forums: Town Hall Meetings at the Norman Rockwell Museum
Join us to share your thoughts on the most compelling issues of our day. This series of Town Hall conversations inspired by Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” paintings will explore aspects of our democracy and important social concerns in a rapidly changing and increasingly global world. Noted commentators will offer observations and inspire community discourse, with a reception to follow.
The tradition of Town Hall meetings has it roots in the founding of our nation where small New England communities would gather to invite citizen opinion and vote on matters of importance to the town. A town meeting is a form of direct democratic rule, used primarily in portions of the United States since the 17th century, in which most or all the members of a community come together to legislate policy and budgets for local government.
The Four Freedoms Forums are free and open to the public.