BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — The University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University present “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race,” a traveling exhibition produced by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibition will be on display in the Schmidt Center Gallery, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus, through Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, from 1 to 4 p.m., and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
“Deadly Medicine explores the Holocaust’s roots in then-contemporary scientific and pseudo-scientific thought,” explains exhibition curator Susan Bachrach. “At the same time, it touches on complex ethical issues we face today, such as how societies acquire and use scientific knowledge and how they balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the larger community.”
Through reproductions of photographs and documents, films, and survivor testimony, “Deadly Medicine” traces how the persecution of groups deemed biologically inferior led to the near annihilation of European Jewry in the 20th century. It also challenges viewers to reflect on the present-day interest in genetic manipulation that promotes the possibility of human perfection.
There will be an academic symposium related to the exhibition on Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 titled “Eugenics: Race, Public Health and the Science of Nationalism.” The symposium will explore the legacies of eugenics from several disciplinary perspectives. Papers will be presented by FAU students and faculty, as well as by invited scholars. The symposium is free and open to the public and more information is available at www.fau.edu/galleries.
“Deadly Medicine” at FAU is generously underwritten by Marilyn and Jay Weinberg and cosponsored by FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education. The traveling exhibition is supported in part by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990. Group and class tours are welcome during public hours as well as at other times scheduled by appointment. To make an appointment for these tours or for a docent-led tour, please call 561-995-6773. Galleries exhibitions are sponsored by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. For more information, call 561-297-2661, email galleries@fau.edu or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
