PRESQUE ISLE – An artist and social activist whose exhibition “Americans Who Tell the Truth” is making its way across the globe will serve as the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s first Distinguished Lecturer in the spring semester.

Robert Shetterly will deliver his presentation, “Democracy and the Necessity of Dissent,” at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25, in the Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” includes nearly 70 portraits that form a traveling exhibit, which is hosted by schools, universities, churches and community groups around the country.

During his UMPI presentation, the Brooksville resident will discuss the lives of his portrait subjects as illustrations of the fact that all Americans have won their rights, freedoms and equalities because people have fought for them.

“If we can learn anything from our own history it is that democracy requires constant citizenship and courage to act in its defense,” he said in a statement.

Shetterly, who graduated from Harvard University with a degree in English literature, also took courses in drawing that helped in his transition from writing to art. He moved to Maine in 1970, working as an artist while becoming proficient in printmaking and painting. His illustrations have appeared in approximately 30 books and other publications and he also worked for 12 years as an editorial page artist for the Maine Times newspaper.

“Americans Who Tell the Truth,” published in 2005, includes Shetterly’s first 50 “truth teller” portraits and an essay and short biographies. It won the 2006 International Reading Association Award for intermediate nonfiction.

One of the people featured is Maine’s Samantha Smith, who as an 11-year-old in 1983 made a historic peace visit to the Soviet Union. She died in a plane crash in 1985 when returning to the state from a peace mission.

Established in 1999, UMPI’s Distinguished Lecture Series brings speakers representing a range of disciplines and viewpoints to campus each year. The speakers typically spend two days on campus meeting with classes and presenting a community lecture.

For information, contact Lynn Eldershaw at 768-9749 or lynn.eldershaw@umpi.edu.

jlbdn@ainop.com

768-5681