Swan to be honored through the "Springfield Icons of the Civil Rights" project.
SPRINGFIELD -- Trinity United Methodist Church, in partnership with Forest Park Middle School, is honoring state Rep. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, through the “Springfield Icons of the Civil Rights Movement” project.
Rep. Benjamin Swan Swan, who has represented the 11th Hampden District since 1994, is a U.S. Army veteran. He was arrested several times protesting for civil rights in the city, during the summer of 1965, when he was one of the leaders of the Springfield chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality.
Pamela Chatterton-Purdy is creating an icon paying tribute to Swan's civil rights work for the Springfield project at Forest Park Middle School.
Chatterton-Purdy is the originator of the installation, "Icons of the Civil Rights Movement," that featured 30 icons on exhibit, in November, at Elms College in Chicopee. Her project uses an ancient art form, often associated with religious adoration, to honor national leaders in the fight for equality. The artist, who lives on Cape Cod, has taught art at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Springfield College and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Through their social studies classes, students at Forest Park have researched the civil rights movement in Springfield. Art students have been studying the movement, along with the art of iconography. In the fall, Trinity sponsored a school bus trip to see Chatterton-Purdy's exhibit at Elms. That exhibit, with icons of Abraham, Lincoln Rosa Parks and Barack Obama, was displayed in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Swan will visit a social studies class of Ann Barone on March 31, and Chatterton-Purdy is scheduled to visit the school's social studies and art classes on April 9, according to a release.
Chatteron-Purdy's icon of Swan will be unveiled in May, with the artwork then on display in the Forest Park Middle School library.
For more information call Trinity Church at 413-737-5311.