Saint Louis University Museum of Art recently opened two exhibits. “The Past Beneath Our Feet” presents findings from two decades of exploration in Ireland by SLU professor Thomas Finan, an associate professor of history at SLU who has studied the history and archaeology of later medieval Ireland, including the borderlands of the Shannon River in Roscommon during the 13th and 14th centuries. As the director of the North Roscommon Archaeological Projects, Finan leads extensive surveys and excavations within the medieval lordship of Moylurg. The project aims to uncover and understand the complex social, economic and political dynamics of this historically significant region.
“Renaissance Man” presents selected works by the Honorable Nathan B. Young Jr., who served St. Louis as co-founder of the St. Louis American and as a lawyer, judge, historian and journalist while pursuing creative passions as a novelist, musician and artist. A class of SLU art history students curated a selection of works that demonstrate Young’s complex and multidimensional engagement with racial themes through the lens of art history. A self-taught artist, Young’s paintings reveal his knowledge of art history, particularly in major European and American works depicting people of African descent, as well as images related to the American anti-slavery and Civil Rights movements.
Saint Louis Museum of Art, located at 3663 Lindell Blvd. in St. Louis, is open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, call (314) 977-2666 or visit www.slu.edu/sluma
