Red Wing - Art and War: A Conversation
2025-11-06 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Anderson Center at Tower View, 163 Tower View Drive, Red Wing, MN, 55066, United States
Join the Minnesota Humanities Center and Anderson Center for a moderated conversation with artists who either focus on the representation of war and armed conflict in their art, or who have created art that addressed these subjects. Artists will discuss their creative output, what it means to interpret experiences of warfare, what happens in the act of interpretation and artistic creation, and what the viewing public can learn from interaction with and communal discussion of these works.
About the Artists
Mary Horgan is an artist and retired Staff Sergeant (U.S. Army). Among multiple activations, she served in the Iraq War in 2006. Horgan’s art confronts the harsh realities of war and the honorable pursuit of peace for all. Since retiring, art has become her tool for healing, peace, and resistance. Horgan’s work includes the memorial to women Veterans, “You Will Not Erase Us,” commissioned by the City of Ramsey in Minnesota. She also creates a range of two and three-dimensional art pieces that explore themes of conflict, survival, resistance, nature, beauty, and truth-telling.
Besides her artistic work, Horgan is a mother and grandmother, and caretaker of animals and gardens. She is passionate about our nation’s democracy and creates work rooted in justice, resilience, and deep personal truth and recovery.
Justin Newhall is an American artist currently based in Minneapolis. His work has been exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Royal Academy of Arts (London), Galerie Lichtblick (Cologne), Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design (Providence), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and Jen Bekman Gallery (New York), among others.
Newhall is the recipient of artist fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and Jerome Foundation. His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Walker Art Center, and George Eastman House (New York).
Megan Rye is a visual artist and teacher. She was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1975, and currently lives in Minneapolis. Through paintings, drawings, photography, and artists books, Rye uses visual storytelling to explore themes of migration, citizenship, remembrance, war, and democracy. Rye’s first significant body of work, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” was a series of paintings based on photographs Rye’s brother took while serving in Iraq. This project debuted at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2007), and was Rye’s first solo exhibit in New York City at Forum Gallery (2011). The aftermath of the Iraq War continues to reverberate, and the paintings have been studied and exhibited widely, including a recent exhibition at the Kunsthalle Emden (Germany).
Rye’s work has been sustained by significant support from the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
About the Moderator
Monica Moses Haller is an artist whose work spans photography, writing, sound, and focuses on personal details that explore violence and possibilities within social and environmental systems. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Moses Haller has exhibited and lectured at locations including Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her artist books are collected by intuitions ranging from the Tate Modern, London, to MOMA, New York. Moses Haller works internationally and is based in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Department of Art.
This program is presented in partnership with Anderson Center at Tower View, a Red Wing-based arts and humanities organization that celebrates the imagination and support the development of new arts and ideas through residencies, studios, and public engagement.
Registration
This event is free to attend. Registration is encouraged. Light refreshments will be served at the event.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

St. Paul - Objects of War: A Storytelling Circle
2026-02-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
The Minnesota Humanities Center invites you to join us for an engaging evening focused on stories of community, consolation, and courage. For Objects of War, participants are asked to bring an item connected to an experience of war and conflict — which could be dog tags, a service member’s good luck charm, or a family heirloom — and share the story of this item during the evening. Moderated by trained facilitators, the conversation will help participants understand why we hold on to certain objects, and how these objects help us better understand the human impacts of war.
About the Facilitators
Jovita Hernandez is a recently retired educator with 32 years of experience. Throughout her career, she approached teaching through a lens of equity, nurturing curiosity, and emphasizing the connections built through the power of story. She introduced Story Circle practice not only in her own classroom but also across the district, leaving a lasting impact on students and colleagues alike. Today, she continues to champion this practice, sharing it in both educational and community spaces as a dedicated story circle practitioner.
Pang Foua Xiong is a creative social entrepreneur, cultural conservator, and mother. She is a first-generation Hmong woman, born to refugee parents who arrived in Minnesota in 1980, and raised in the Rondo/Frogtown neighborhood on the homelands of the Dakhóta people in Mni Sóta Makoce (Saint Paul, Minnesota). Her work spans more than 25 years in grassroots advocacy and co-designing accessibility and equity opportunities in healthcare, education, and economic systems. Her identity and journey as a Hmong woman and efforts in cultural and language revitalization of her endangered native language and heritage continue to shape her sense of place and purpose. She is the founder of Community & Co Lifestyle, LLC, a cultural and creative social enterprise that facilitates and nurtures collaborative connections, leadership, community engagement, and facilitating systems of care. As a social entrepreneur, bilingual Hmong interpreter, creative and social impact consultant, and humanities facilitator, Pang Foua co-designs and leads thoughtful community-centered initiatives, creative solutions, and engagement through the lens of whole wellbeing, place-knowing, and place-based learning practices.
This event is presented in partnership with the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum, an institution which seeks to strengthen public understanding of how armed conflicts and military institutions have shaped our state and national experience.
Registration
This event is free to attend, however registration is required. Dinner will be served at the event.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now
