One College, One Exhibition: Inaugural Event
Seton Hall University and the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) are bringing Americans Who Tell the Truth to South Orange, New Jersey for the month of October 2025.
This large collection, including fifty portraits, will be hung in several venues across the Seton Hall Campus, with multiple special events throughout the month.
The exhibit kicks off at 6 p.m. on October 7 at The Herb + Milly Iris Gallery (SOPAC). This will be “an evening of art, truth, and community dialogue,” featuring five AWTT portraits: Langston Hughes, Pete Seeger, John Lewis, César Chávez, and Sojourner Truth. The evening will also include a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Bryan Crable, Founding Dean of Seton Hall’s College of Human Development, Culture, and Media (CHDCM). Dean Crable will be joined by Rev. Dr. Terry Richardson, artist Nette Forné Thomas, and John McEwen, Executive Director of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance. “Together, these dynamic leaders will explore how truth-telling, civic courage, and creative expression continue to shape the social fabric of our communities.” RSVP here
The opening reception will be the following night, October 8 at 5:30 p.m. at Seton Hall’s Walsh Library, 2nd floor. The reception will be followed by Seton Hall Chamber Choir’s performance of a CHDCM-commissioned composition, “Truth Be Told,” with music by Robert S. Cohen and text by Ronald W. Cadmus. Register here
Check CHDCM site for additional events throughout the month of October.
AWTT artist Robert Shetterly is pleased to be the innaugural guest artist of the university’s new initiative One College, One Exhibition (OCEO). He will be in South Orange for both opening events. He will also be engaging with students in their classrooms on October 8th and speaking at that evening’s reception.
According to the OCEO organizers, “This program aims to unite the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media (CHDCM) academic community through shared engagement with a curated art exhibition, one that speaks to core values of the College and Seton Hall’s historic Catholic identity and mission. . . . 
Nearly a year in the making, Bryan Crable, Ph.D., founding dean of the CHDCM, is excited to see this initiative come to life. ‘Our College’s strength is our unity-in-diversity,’ Crable said. ‘And, given the fantastic series of events linked to the exhibition, our community is highlighting critical intersections among the arts, communication, education, leadership and mental health — our key fields.’ He added, ‘I invite the College, University, and surrounding communities to help us celebrate Americans, past and present, who persevere, struggle and sacrifice in order to tell the truth, courageously and faithfully, in compassionate service to their communities, with love and with purpose, and hopeful for a brighter, more just future for all.'”
