‘Imagining Joan of Arc’ honors saint’s influence, Women’s History Month
Syracuse University’s Bird Library and Art Museum showcased a series of works relating to Joan of Arc. The works prioritize the powerful figure, who was an inspiration for many women’s suffrage movements. Sean Sterling | Staff Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
When he was 16, Stephen Huffaker watched as several peers in his confirmation class at his Catholic church chose Joan of Arc as their confirmation saint, or a saint they recognized as a role model for their spiritual lives.
Joan of Arc continually appeared in books kept in his home library, along with the lessons he learned in school. Eventually, Huffaker learned another side of her.
“(She) would appear in pretty much every single (Catholic narrative),” said Huffaker, a Bird Library technician and Syracuse University master’s student. “She’s not the only heroic female saint, but she’s one of the best examples.”
SU Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center and the SU Art Museum partnered to host a two-hour pop-up exhibit on Tuesday featuring curated collections of artifacts related to Joan of Arc, a tenant farmer’s daughter who evolved into a symbol of women’s courage after leading a victorious French Army in the Hundred Years War.
The museum’s collection featured four items: an abstract color etching, an oil painting, a lithograph illustration and a print. The SCRC’s assortment also included items of various art disciplines, including an anthology of over 20 items that reimagined and honored Joan of Arc as a woman who defied historical gender norms.
The diverse curation included items from a range of several hundred years. Some items focused on Joan of Arc while others were inspired by her story, like the Patti Smith poem “jeanne d’arc.”
Irina Savinetskaya, a SCRC curator, said the SCRC pulled all of the showcased items from the libraries’ collections, except for one new acquisition of a cast-signed Playbill for the 2018 Broadway revival of “Saint Joan.”
Savinetskaya chose to showcase the exhibition during Women’s History Month because Joan of Arc was a powerful figure who catalyzed and inspired many women’s suffrage movements. For Visco, showcasing the exhibition was about the cultural relevance that Joan of Arc continues to have, even centuries after her existence.
Bird Library staff discuss works related to Joan of Arc on display for Women’s History Month. The pieces honored the saint’s heroic reputation in Catholic tradition.Sean Sterling | Staff Photographer
This past summer, Savinetskaya and her curatorial intern, Mary Visco, began planning the exhibition “The Making of the Medieval Book.” While searching through the SU archives, the pair found many artifacts that portrayed Joan of Arc’s femininity differently throughout the time periods. It led them to pull more related artifacts that would compile a pop-up.
Visco recognizes the legacy that Joan of Arc has had on women’s liberation. For the suffragettes, Joan of Arc symbolized a person’s ability to stand up for oneself, she said. In Joan of Arc’s role as a military leader, she redefined roles that were traditionally reserved for men, she said.
For some attendees, like university archivist Meg Mason, items that symbolized Joan of Arc’s impact were familiar. Without knowing, Mason found a copy of the same poster that she bought in college at an antique show, titled “Joan of Arc Saved France” which was commissioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1918 to raise funds for World War I.
Mason said the exhibit gives viewers both a present-day and historical view of how women exist within society.
“Her story is recounted today because misogyny is still alive, and we still have to fight those stereotypical views of women,” Mason said.
The exhibit provoked several thoughts for Huffaker.After attending the library’s exhibit, Huffaker said his original perception of Joan of Arc was challenged; he had originally mainly associated her with only French patriotism. Huffaker hadn’t considered the strong connection between Joan of Arc and American patriotism, as showcased in the “Joan of Arc Saved France” poster.
Aside from the poster and a satirical Voltaire poem titled “The Maid of Orleans” that challenged the heroic portrayals of Joan of Arc, the majority of items exhibited “reaffirmed” Huffaker’s views of Joan of Arc as a hero, he said.
Mason wasn’t surprised by the range of Joan of Arc images in the art exhibition. After all, Joan of Arc’s story continues to influence women in the present.
“(The works show) how powerful her story is and that there are people throughout history that use it to their advantage, whether to lift women or to put them down,” Mason said.
