Culver City Wende Museum Promotes Dialogue About Current Events

CULVER CITY, CA — As U.S.-Russia tensions mount, The Wende Museum of the Cold War offers "Art – Past – Present," a new discussion series about how art and history shape our world.

"In an era with so much polarization and so few facts, we offer a space for informed conversations," said Chief Curator Joes Segal.

"Art – Past – Present" allows community members to talk with renowned artists whose work deals with history. Artist Ken Gonzales-Day and contemporary-art curator Brenda G. Williams will speak on Tuesday, June 6, at 6 p.m.

Since the series launched in March, "Art – Past – Present" has featured artists Farrah Karapetian, Chris Wyrick, Katya Tylevich, and Bill Ferehawk, who is working on a video installation about the Malta Conference, the symbolic end of the Cold War.

"Public forums for discussion are essential, and we have an important role to play as an institution that can offer accurate historical perspective. Art and history illuminate and help us understand the realities confronting us," Segal said.

"The conversations at Art – Past – Present have been electric," said Justinian Jampol, the museum's founder and executive director.

The Wende Museum holds an unparalleled collection of artifacts and personal histories from Cold War-era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and has advanced scholarship about the period since 2002.

This fall, the Wende will move to a new home at the iconic former National Guard Armory Building at 10808 Culver Blvd. The expansive Armory campus will make the previously under-the-radar institution a community resource for knowledge and culture. The Wende will open at the Armory in November with a gala celebration, an exhibition on Cold War Spaces, and a community open house.

"Art – Past – Present" is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The Wende Museum is currently located at 5741 Buckingham Parkway in Culver City, California. The Museum is open to the public every Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call 310-216-1600 or go to www.wendemuseum.org.

News release form Wende Museum. Courtesy photo