May 31, 2026 3:00 PM –5:00 PM
“Something of the Narod”: Croatian Immigrant Church Murals Before and After the Johnson-Reed Act
In 1909, prominent Croatian historicist artist Oton Iveković (1869-1939) made the long trip from Zagreb to paint a set of murals in St. John the Baptist Croatian Catholic Church in Kansas City, KS. About three decades later, artist Maksimilijan Vanka (1889-1963), a recent immigrant to the United States, was invited to paint murals in St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale, PA. These artists were working for Croatian working-class immigrant communities at opposite ends of the Rust Belt and in strikingly different political moments in the history of American immigration. This presentation will explore how the artists and priests involved in both artistic projects did not shy away from using their artistic platforms to enter into contemporary discourse around immigrants and immigration.
