Carthage hosts Soviet-era art symposium

KENOSHA, Wis. – Carthage College presents the fourth symposium celebrating the Samuel and Berry Shoen Collection of Soviet Art: “Borderlands and Crossroads: A Confluence of Art, Music, Film, and Everyday Life.”

Hosted in collaboration with students, scholars, and educators, this interdisciplinary event explores how creative expression intersected with daily life across the former Soviet Union and its borderlands. Through exhibitions, performances, screenings, and dialogue, the symposium invites audiences to consider how art, music, and film illuminate historical realities and resonate in enduring human stories.

Symposium Schedule

Harvesting Light: Soviet Women in Labor and Life

Dec. 5-11, 2025 and Jan. 7-17, 2026
H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art

Featuring a selection of paintings from the Shoen collection, the exhibition reflects on how women in the early Soviet Union were called to labor and nurture, simultaneously symbols of both progress and devotion. Theirs is a story of resilience, as they found light in the hard work of building and sustaining a new world.

Gallery hours:

• Tuesday and Wednesday: 1-6 p.m.
• Thursday: 1-8 p.m.
• Friday: 1-5 p.m.
• Saturday: 1-4 p.m.

From Fog to Factory: Soviet Animation and the Lives Between Dream and Labor

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 – 1-2:30 p.m.
Visual and Performing Arts Lab in the H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art

Attend a curated screening of animated works by Yuri Norstein (“Hedgehog in the Fog,” 1975), Aleksandr Petrov (“The Cow,” 1989), Andrey Khrzhanovsky (“There Lived Kozyavin,” 1966), and Fyodor Khitruk (“The Story of a Crime,” 1962). These films reveal how Soviet animators balanced imagination, labor, and subtle social critique within a constrained political climate. A discussion and reception will follow the screening.

Roundtable Discussion: Women and Labor

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 – 2-3 p.m.
Visual and Performing Arts Lab in the H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art

Guest participant Christina Kiaer, the Frances Hooper Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University, presents “Collective Women’s Labor at the Red Rose Silk Factory.” She will be joined by Carthage faculty members James Richie, Robin Holmes, and Lisa Bigalke. A reception will follow the roundtable.

Recital: Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19 (1901)

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 – Noon -1 p.m.
Recital Hall in the H. F. Johnson Center for the Fine Arts

Performed by Stefan Kartman, professor of cello and chamber music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and pianist Jeannie Yu, this four-movement masterpiece showcases Sergei Rachmaninov’s lyrical depth, harmonic richness, and equal partnership between cello and piano.

Lecture: Socialist Realism and the Lived Experience of Revolution

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 – 2-3 p.m.
Visual and Performing Arts Lab in the H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art

Building on her recent book “Collective Body: Aleksandr Deineka at the Limit of Socialist Realism,” Northwestern professor Christina Kiaer reflects on how early Soviet art visually reimagined everyday life and bodily experience in the newly formed Soviet Union. Socialist Realism has long been dismissed as kitsch. But through a consideration of the works of artist Aleksandr Deineka and other major artists of that moment, in concert with paintings from the Shoen collection, Kiaer argues that, at its best, Socialist Realism was also an experimental aesthetic form that attempted to organize the lived experience of revolution toward collective ends. A discussion and reception will follow the lecture.

Exhibition Reception

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 – 3:30-6:30 p.m.
H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art and Visual and Performing Arts Lab

This reception for the exhibition “Harvesting Light: Soviet Women in Labor and Life” will feature “Milk Politics,” a presentation by Carthage student Jared Werner, at 4:30 p.m.

About the Shoen Collection

This collection at Carthage features 131 pieces of professional artwork depicting scenes and themes from areas under Soviet rule in the 20th century. Samuel and Berry Shoen, longtime supporters of the arts, donated the largest portion of the new collection of oil paintings and drawings from Armenia, Byelorussia, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. This annual symposium continues to illuminate intersections of art, ideology, and everyday life, fostering dialogue across disciplines and generations.

Visit www.carthage.edu/sovietart to learn more about the collection.

About Carthage
Carthage College is raising expectations for a private college experience. It blends the best liberal arts traditions with desirable degree programs, transformative learning opportunities, personal attention from distinguished faculty, and a focus on career development, which makes its graduates competitive in the workforce. Founded in 1847, Carthage is located on an idyllic shore of Lake Michigan in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the thriving corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago. Grow with us: www.carthage.edu

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.