Human Rights & Holocaust Art

Website testimonial letters Illinois

Testimonial by retired Illinois State University Foreign Language dept. professor Andy Weeks

The following 3 sentences are excerpted from an email I received from him on March 23, 2023 after I wrote him about my newest work in the wings series.

We were friends in Champaign, winter-spring 1974 and with another student we drove to Mexico for several weeks in my VW bug that summer. Late August 1974 Andy helped me move to Carbondale, where I began my freshman year at SIU-Carbondale that September.
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We last met up in person in Bloomington-Normal,late January 2023, when I guest taught
at Illinois Wesleyan University and at Illinois State University. Andy helped organize my very well received presentation I led to about 50 Illinois State University students who were in the ISU Student History Club, this was before the pandemic.
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From Andy's email, March 23, 2023, in response to a photo I sent him of just completed UTW 77: Two Senegalese soldiers murdered by the Wehrmacht near Lyons, France, June 20-21, 1940:  

"I think your image of the two African poilus is awesome. The colors and configuration are very appealing, bright yet solemn. We will both have to seek solace in the sense of our lives of solidarity with the wretched of the earth."  

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P.S. by AKS: I looked up the word French poilus in the internet. In the website bl.uk (British Library, UK) the following: "Why are French soldiers called Poilus? Meaning 'hairy', poilu is supposed to have originated in a story by Honoré de Balzac, Le Médecin de Campagne (1834), in which a group of French soldiers are required for a deed requiring particular courage. In this story only 40 soldiers in one regiment are deemed to be assez poilu, hairy enough."  

Background written by A.K.Segan, Feb. 3, 2023: 
Professor Bernstein taught studio art at the School of Art, Southern Illinois University, carbondale. He was born in 1928; raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

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In 1975 I took a painting class he taught. We became friends and I visited his house several times during my art college years in Carbondale.
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In the early 1980’s, after a blurb on my art and career was published in  Who’s Who in American Art, pub. by Jacques Cattell Press, I was pleased to submit Professor Bernstein’s name for consideration for a future edition to the editors; he was indeed included in a subsequent edition. (It was a large hardcopy book). 

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In 1996 he was one of the 3 organizers of my Under the Wings of G-d Holocaust education with art slide presentation at the Faner Hall art museum auditorium. It was a great success; we had a standing room only audience; it was packed with attendees, mostly students and there were articles in the campus and local Southern Illinoisan newspaper.
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In this video footage posted on Youtube, Prof. Bernstein, and now late SIU-C School of Art studio art professor Sylvia Greenfield (she taught fiber arts) are seen for about 2 or 3 seconds in the auditorium after the presentation, early part of the footage. Professor Bernstein has a gray beard.   

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Holocaust Educ thru Art: Unity Point School, guest teaching w/ A K Segan, Carbondale IL '96 © (7 min., 55 sec)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9x7dHY2EhY  

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In February 2022 I phoned him and we had a nice chat; the first time we spoke in years. He turned 94 that March. He left this world the following month.
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After he passed I read that he had done prison visits for some years; this intrigued me as I myself had done prison visits over some years in Washington state.
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The following is a reference letter he wrote on my behalf to a graduate MFA program I had applied to:

"School of Art, SIU-Carbondale
February 9, 1977

Chairperson, Art Dept.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Dear Chairperson:

I am pleased to write in support of Ken Segan’s qualifications to pursue a graduate program at your school.

I have known Ken for several years. He has been taking painting classes with me and has also assisted me in mounting drawings, framing paintings and helping hang a show I had in early fall.

He is a very talented, sophisticated and hard driving young artist. His graphic work is especially strong. His educational background is more varied than many of our students and he’s knocked about in the world a bit more. This has undoubtedly contributed to his power. His image has been changing over the last few months from tight and controlled pen and ink to a more open, multi media fluid and expressive approach. He has also become very involved in printmaking.

He is a warm, articulate and responsible person with a totally professional attitude towards his work. He would make an excellent teacher and would be an asset in any Master’s studio program.

I recommend him without qualifications and would be happy to supply more information by letter or phone if requested.

Sincerely,
Lawrence Bernstein
Associate Professor  

[note on the attached photos:
The 2 photos of him were taken by AKS, spring 1996, at his house near Carbondale. 
The still photo with 4  people standing is from the video footage (Youtube, attached, url, above) at the Faner Hall Museum auditorium. Prof. Bernstein has the beard; at far right, late SIU-C Art Professor
 Sylvia Bernstein.

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The painting, by Prof. Bernstein, is from 1954, titled "Geometric Landscape."
Size: 2 ft. H x 4 W. Courtesy the Bernstein family.  

University of Illinois
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
The Program in Jewish Culture and Society

Room 109, English Building
608 S. Wright Street
Urbana, Illinois 618

February 5, 2020
To Whom it May Concern:

On February 3, 2020, artist and educator Akiva Segan offered a beautiful slide show presentation to the Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies Faculty seminar about his diverse work. Faculty and students discussed his artistic process as well as some of the larger meanings of his work, including the symbolism of metaphoric angels and of allegorical sea monsters, the nature of survival, and the strength of art to show traumatic pasts. We are grateful that he took the time to discuss his projects with us.

I wish him the best in his future projects.

Brett Ashley Kaplan, she/her
Ph.D.
Professor, Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies
Director, Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies
Director of Graduate Studies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
Illinois’ first public university

Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Campus Box 4300
Normal, IL 61790-4300

March 3, 2020
To Whom It May Concern:

At my invitation, widely known artist and human rights educator Akiva Segan came to my campus on January 30, 2020 to present his work. His well-received power-point, attended by students and faculty, was titled “Metaphoric Wings & Allegorical Sea Monsters in the Holocaust &Human Rights Education Art of Akiva K. Segan”

Mr. Segan talked about his artistic process and about the Holocaust stories that inspire his work. The power-point presentation was followed with a question and answer session. All in the audience seemed to agree it an hour well-spent..

I have been aware of Mr. Segan's art for at least 15 years, and continue to be impressed by his artistic originality and his commitment to Holocaust and to human rights education.

Best regards,
(signature)

Jonathan Druker, Ph.D.
Professor of Italian and Italian Section Coordinator
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Illinois State University
Normal IL 61790

Letter from Sonja Fritzsche, Assistant Professor of German & Eastern European Studies, and Lynda Duke, Academic Outreach Librarian & Assistant Professor, Illinois Wesleyan University

Bloomington, July 25, 2006

On behalf of IWU, we wish to express our appreciation for your recent visit to campus and month-long art exhibit in the Ames Library entitled Tolerance Through Art. Certainly the selections from your two series, Under the Wings of G-d & Sight-seeing with Dignity keep alive the awareness of the Holocaust and other continuing human rights abuses around the world.

We were impressed with the level of excitement and dedication with which you approached your many classes, exhibit tours and formal presentations.

Clearly your visit had an impact on the faculty, students, staff and members of the greater Bloomington – Normal community who had the opportunity to view your work. We were also pleased the broad campus financial support that we received from the German Studies, Russian and Eastern European Studies, IWU Hillel and the Student Senate that made your visit possible.

Even after your visit, your art continues to have an influence. Both of us received numerous positive comments on the exhibit. This is especially important, since this is the first such exhibit we have had in the library. The success of this exhibit gives us hope that we will have more shows in the future.

Letter from Andrew Weeks, Professor of German, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Illinois State University

Bloomington, Feb. 2, 2007

I am writing to summarize the impact of your campus visit here in Bloomington-Normal. Your visits to our university classes were highly successful.  My students reacted to your slide presentations of your art with great interest and with many fruitful questions. 

The discussion was stimulating and productive. You gave our students a vivid sense of historical context, human ethics, and artistic challenges of responding appropriately to the past.

My colleagues and I felt that, for young people two generations removed from the events of the Holocaust, your presentation was ideal.  I believe that in Germany, where the ethics and politics of commemoration are controversial, your mode of presentation and discussion could be of great interest.

Not only our young students, whose knowledge of European history is minor, but also my colleagues, whose familiarity with the Holocaust is more extensive, were impressed and stimulated by your artwork and oral presentation.

I was also pleased that your work at Illinois State University was so enthusiastically received that you were invited to present and exhibit your art at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Letter from Chris Mattingly, teacher at Unity Point School, Carbondale, Illinois

October 15, 1996

“We very much appreciated the presentation in our school. The presentation was pertinent to our school, which is very multicultural, indeed international, due to Southern Illinois University students’ children attending our school.

The slides of Israel Bernbaum’s paintings and drawings that were shared gave students reason to reflect. We are grateful to have been included in the presentation schedule, and felt it to be a valuable experience to all.”

Letter from Betsy Herman, director, Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

Carbondale, December 23, 1996

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you again for for your wonderful slide presentation here last April. Your specific information on the history of the Warsaw ghetto brilliantly illuminated the works by Israel Bernbaum and yourself which contain depictions of that period. The background information on the Jews of Poland also helped to put those events into perspective.

Our audience of over 100 students and community members on the campus of Southern Illinois University was very appreciative of your style and delivery, and I heard many people mention their impression of your drawings, even after they had been removed for many weeks.

I hope you find much success in completing the series, and in taking your message to many other communities like ours, where Jewish Education is a rare and much-needed commodity.

I also appreciated the memorable discussion we had with the eight grade art class at Unity Point School. My son Justin was very impressed with the poignancy of the need for respect and understanding of differences, especially in the school setting.

Professor Herbert L. Fink, School of Art, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, November 23, 1979

This letter is not only my recommendation of Ken Segan, but also my assessment of his talents and abilities. 

I have known him for a period of 6 years. First as an undergraduate here at S.I.U. Then while he has been in the graduate program at the University of Missouri, he has kept in touch and has shown me, on several occasions, his work in progress.

About the highest recommendation I can give Ken is just the fact that I am doing this – for I believe in him as a person – and as an artist. I say this for after 31 years of collegiate teaching – Yale, Rhode Island School of Design, Southern Illinois University – and going full route – Chairman, Director, Dean, Professor, I am very concerned as to who I will recommend – for time is very precious to me – Ken is worth the time.

First of all – he has real talent – then he is committed – as they say – engagé – totally involved in his art. It if for him – a way of life. These factors are critical if one is to even be a real artist; and not a dedicated amateur.

His imagery is both personal and quite original. The work has an impact that in time will attract a wide national audience.

I rather suspect that he has not been a “good” student – but original creative people rarely art.

I’ve been impressed by the work in progress. For he continually grows as an artist. And the pictures are richer expressions each viewing.

As a person he is kindly, well-spoken and courteous. I have confidence in his abilities – and his will to accomplish something ultimately of real worth. Obviously, he has my whole hearted recommendation.

Very truthfully yours,
(signed) Herbert L. Fink, Professor
Vice President, Tiffany Foundation, NYC
Vice President, Mitchell Foundation
Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation
Fellow of the National Academy

Letter from Milton F. Sullivan, July 31, 1975,
Director, School of Art, SIU-Carbondale

estimonial IL Milton Sullivan, Director SIU-C School of Art 

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Milton Sullivan letter, Director, School of Art, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1976 

Background note by A.K. Segan, Feb. 12, 2023:
Professor Milton Sullivan was chair of the School of Art for several years. He wrote the following letter on behalf of my application for graduate art studies at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, Aug. 6, 1976.  

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Also see the 1975 letter he wrote to me after he'd seen the solo exhibit of my art held at the SIU-Carbondale Student Union.   

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On Sept. 24, 2016 he left this world, in Makanda, Illinois.
I hope to add his birth year and a photo of him.  
His August 1976 reference letter: 

"August 6, 1976 

Ms. Isabel Blase
Office of the Dean
School of Fine Arts
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri 

Dear Ms. Blase:

This letter is in recommendation of Mr. Kenneth Segan, an applicant to the School of Fine Arts at Washington University. I am pleased to write to you on his behalf for I believe Ken Segan to be an especially well-qualified student for graduate work. Although I have not had Ken in any of my classes in sculpture, I have come to know both him and his work quite intimately since he has been in the School of Art at S.I.U.- Carbondale.

More than most students, he has developed an attitude of dedication and hard work that promises success for him both in graduate school and in the future. He has been able to work independently but in doing this, he has always researched the necessary resources for carrying out his creative ideas -- independent in spirit but delightful and cooperative to work with. I believe that he is beginning to reach both an aesthetic and conceptual base in his 2-D and graphic work. I think you would find him to be both an excellent student and a person to have in your graduate program.

Sincerely,
(signed)
Milton F. Sullivan
Director
School of Art
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale"