Images Past and Present

FAIN: AV-298433-24

Sinclair Community College (Dayton, OH 45402-1421)
Kay Koeninger (Project Director: September 2023 to present)

A one-year project to train two pairs of veteran center staff and art historians to lead discussions on visual arts and the experiences of war, followed by their facilitation of two discussion series for students and members of the public.  

This project will create and support two discussion groups of student-veterans, veterans, military family members, and others with military ties, one at Sinclair College and one at Wright State University. Both colleges are located in Dayton, Ohio, with large numbers of active and retired military personnel due to the presence of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Dayton Veterans Administration Hospital, the Museum of the United States Air Force, and many aerospace-focused companies. The discussion groups will discuss the experience of war, covering themes such as propaganda, combat, comradeship, leadership, death, homecoming, and memorialization, using works of visual art - sculpture, painting, prints, and photography - from global traditions and periods of time ranging from the ancient to the present, with a special focus on the American Civil War and the Vietnam War.