A Conversation on the LMU Liturgical Vestment Collection
April 21, 2021
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (PST)
Live online discussion via Zoom
This ACTI Faculty Fellowship presentation will feature a conversation between Professor Leon Wiebers, Cynthia Becht, and Professor Cecilia González-Andrieu on the historic vestments held in the Archives and Special Collections of the William H. Hannon Library.
Professor Wiebers, the ACTI Fellow, and Ms. Becht will discuss how they collaboratively used these materials to teach two unique seminar classes to reveal the history and promote the preservation of these objects.
Professor González-Andrieu will contextualize these garments in their complex functions for the Catholic Hispanic community as they express and evoke the religious imagination.
The event was recorded and is available for viewing below.
Panelists
Leon Wiebers
Leon Wiebers is an award-winning costume designer with productions in the United States, 0ff-Broadway, and internationally. He was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Research Award to South Korea examining traditional dress and performance. Recent credits: Oslo for Pioneer Theatre, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at St. Louis Rep and Cincinnati Playhouse; The Music Man at Glimmerglass Festival, Royal Opera in Oman; Gypsy and The King and I at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Empire, Man Of LaMancha at LaMirada Performing Arts; other companies include: the Hollywood Bowl; California Music Circus for over 10 years and 20 productions, San Francisco Opera Center, English National Opera, Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, the National Theatre of Korea. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, 829, a national board member of the Costume Society of America, and an associate professor at Loyola Marymount University.
He is also the recipient of the 2019-2020 ACTI Faculty Fellowship award.
Cecilia González-Andrieu
Cecilia González-Andrieu is professor of Theology at LMU. A graduate of LMU and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, she works in the fields of theological aesthetics, political theology and Latino theology. Among her publications is Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty. She is a contributing writer for America Magazine and a member of the Board of the Ignatian Solidarity Network.
Cynthia Becht
Cynthia Becht is the head of Archives and Special Collections at Loyola Marymount University, where she directs the stewardship of a wide variety of historical objects. She received her M.L.I.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles and subsequently specialized as a rare book curator and cataloger for thirteen years. The collections she oversees include the University Archives, rare printed books, manuscripts, photograph collections, one of the world’s largest postcard collections, art works and cultural artifacts, which include the 18th-19th century Vestments Collection. Ms. Becht regularly teaches and hosts instruction sessions that introduce students to both hands-on as well as virtual analysis of cultural objects. She promotes historical textiles and other rare materials through rotating exhibitions, frequently working with faculty and student curators.