Opening reception for "I'm Walkin' For My Freedom," images from the Civil Rights movement by the late photographer Matt Herron. Exhibit runs Oct 25–Dec 5.
Statement
Inspired by the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the deepening interest in America’s multicultural history, the Center for Documentary Expression and Art (CDEA), an independent, non-profit organization, creates, supports, and promotes documentary expression, documentary art, and documentary studies through programs that honor the cultural, spiritual, and ethnic identities of our nation’s diverse population. CDEA also carries out original, statewide, K-16 education-outreach activities, featuring artists/scholars-in-residence who guide K-16 students to explore Utah’s history, diversity, social life, and environmental/ecological challenges through place-based education programs.
Artist's Bio
Matt Herron (1931–2020) became a photojournalist in 1962. Based in Mississippi in the early 1960s, Herron covered the Civil Rights struggle for Life, Look, Time, and Newsweek magazines and for the Saturday Evening Post. He also provided photographs and support for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1963, he founded and directed the Southern Documentary Project, a team of five photographers who attempted to document the process of social change in the South. His recent book, Mississippi Eyes, recounts the history and displays photographs from that project.
Herron’s images have appeared in virtually every major photography magazine in the world and in 1965 he won the World Press Photo Contest for a photograph of a Mississippi cop beating a five-year-old child. A graduate of Princeton, Herron’s work is in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the High Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution.
AGE GROUP: | All Ages |
EVENT TYPE: | Exhibits | Arts & Creativity |
NOTE: The Main Library's Rooftop Terrace is closed for renovations.
Salt Lake City's Main Library, designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie in conjunction with VCBO Architecture, opened in February 2003 and remains one of the most architecturally unique structures in Utah. This striking 240,000 square-foot structure houses more than 500,000 books and other materials, yet serves as more than just a repository of books and computers. It reflects and engages the city's imagination and aspirations. The structure embraces a public plaza, with shops and services at ground level, reading galleries above, and a 300-seat auditorium.
A multi-level reading area along the Glass Lens at the southern facade of the building looks out onto the plaza with stunning views of the city and Wasatch Mountains beyond. Spiraling fireplaces on four floors resemble a column of flame from the vantage of 200 East and 400 South. The Urban Room between the Library and the Crescent Wall is a space for all seasons, generously endowed with daylight and open to magnificent views.
