(September 2007)

Contact: Diane Dufilho, Director of Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College at 318-869-5169 or email, or Centenary News Service at email

Community Arts Educator Mathew Schwarzman Lectures at Centenary Sept. 16-21

Shreveport, LA — Centenary's Meadows Museum of Art will host nationally esteemed community-based arts educator Mathew Schwarzman on campus Sept. 16-21, 2007. He will present two lectures that are free and open to the public:

Sunday, Sept. 16
2-3 p.m. in Meadows Museum of Art
"National Network of Community-Based Artists and the Social Change Catalyzed by Their Work" will introduce Dr. Schwarzman's Crossroads Project in New Orleans and discuss how Shreveport—Bossier can become involved in similar community-based efforts.

Tuesday, Sept. 18
11:10 am to noon in Meadows Museum of Art
"Transformative Learning and Change Through the Arts" will recommend ways to further embrace diversity and activism through local, grassroots arts programs.

Dr. Schwarzman's visit is intended to advance campus dialogue about diversity, community building, culture, and the artist as an agent of change. His talks coincide with the museum's fall exhibitions, open now until October 28: "City of Hope" presents documentary photographs the Historic New Orleans Collection took in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita,and "Works by John Scott" features the New Orleans' artist's sculptures and woodblock prints. The visit will also promote "The Highland Spirit House Project," a Meadows Museum of Art and Centenary College Art Department initiative introducing Centenary College students to community-based arts practices.

For more than twenty years, Dr. Schwarzman has studied community-based arts and helped to establish arts education programs across the United States. He is the founder and director of the Crossroads Project for Art, Learning and Community in New Orleans (www.xroadsproject.org) and the co-author of "Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts."