Well, to sum it up, it is a series of collaborative, interactive events and activities using the art of Norman Rockwell, and that of artist and filmmaker Maggie Meiners, as a place to come together and begin bridging the social and cultural divide perceived in America today.

This feeling of division has spread beyond red or blue – “It’s the 1 percent vs. the 99 percent, rural vs. urban ... the melting pot seems to be boiling over.”

In these times, it is imperative to take action and create a framework that encourages understanding and togetherness in communities everywhere —and that’s what this project is about.

Okay, but why “The Four Freedoms?”

There is only one speech in U.S. History that has managed to influence countless books, films, art, and a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) —not to mention its own state park.

In 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke before Congress in a State of the Union address, now popularly known as “The Four Freedoms Speech.” As World War II entered its third year, Roosevelt addressed an increasingly concerned citizenry. Although America would remain neutral until that December, Roosevelt laid down the country’s stance, emphasized in the four freedoms - Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

Roosevelt’s speech inspired contemporary creations that are recognizable today - like those of Norman Rockwell, and continues to inform the work of artists around the world, including Maggie Meiners. A pretty good starting point, right?

Where can I learn more about Norman Rockwell and his art?

You can learn more about Norman Rockwell’s art by going to these sites:

The Norman Rockwell Museum

The Saturday Evening Post

Who started the Four Freedoms and Beyond Project?

A nonprofit organization called Midwest Partners in Princeton, IL. Princeton is a rural community with ties that extend around the globe. They are dedicated to developing and sustaining collaborative community projects ranging from Main Street revitalization to agroforestry, public art, and childhood literacy.

The events are organized and hosted by Midwest Partners and the Princeton Public Library, with support from The Interactivity Foundation, Starved Rock Country Community Foundation, Festival 56 and the Princeton Theater Group, Freedom House, Open Prairie Church, and the Illinois Humanities Council. Additional collaboration with First Christian Church, Freedom House, NCIARTworks, Princeton Public Arts Commission, Prairie Fox Books, Tri-County Opportunities Council, Voices from the Prairie and a growing list of media, community service organizations, nonprofit groups and businesses in North Central Illinois.

Students can write 150-500 words or create a piece of art on the topic “What Freedom Means to Me.”

Find the essay materials here.

Logan Junior High School in Princeton has a unique connection to this project dating back nearly 70 years.

The Curtis Circulation Company - the publisher of the Saturday Evening Post- used to hold magazine sales contests with schools. The company would award certificates and plaques to the schools who sold the most copies of the Saturday Evening Post, and other publications released by Curtis. The plaques included bronze embossed images of The Four Freedoms.

From the 1953-54 school year to the 1956-57 school year, Logan 8th graders sold subscriptions to magazines for Curtis and their efforts earned them each of The Four Freedoms on individual plaques. Those plaques still hang in the hallway of Logan Junior High School today.

We seek to honor that bit of local history in our community by incorporating the art of Logan 8th graders reinterpreting The Four Freedoms nearly 80 years after Rockwell first created them in 1943. What does the freedom of speech or the freedom from want look like to these youth in the 21st Century?

These students, under the tutelage of their social studies teacher, David Gray, will learn about President Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address, the WWII era, about Norman Rockwell, as well as the various artistic interpretations of The Four Freedoms that have been created since, including the photographs by Maggie Meiners. They will then apply what they have learned by creating their own vision of these fragile freedoms.

The best representations of each of The Four Freedoms will be exhibited publicly at the event held May 21, 2022 at The Grace Theater in Princeton and shared here on our website.

Maggie Meiners (b. 1972) is an artist and filmmaker who has created works of art based off of Norman Rockwell’s vision of The Four Freedoms, but she has contemporized them for the 21st Century. In her Revisiting Rockwell series, she reinterprets and updates Rockwell’s nostalgic, iconic images of mid-century American life. Her work was most recently exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey and featured in the New York Times.