On Sunday, November 15, at 4 pm, local organizations will host a free Zoom lecture on “The Four Freedoms: From Roosevelt to Norman Rockwell.”

The lecture will be delivered by Robin Hoffman and Jodi Stiffelman of ArtScapades. Anne Oppermann, Norman Rockwell’s former secretary and historian in Stockbridge, Mass., will share personal stories and letters about Rockwell.

The program is sponsored by Joy Hoffman/The Joy of Art and Newtown Congregational Church.

On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his eighth State of the Union Address to Congress. At the end of the speech he outlined what would be known as the Four Freedoms, the four basic elements of freedom that all humans in the world ought to have access to: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom of Want, and the Freedom of Fear.

The Freedoms set the foundation for a whole new definition of human rights in 1941 and are just as powerful and influential today as they were when introduced during WWII.

FDR dovetailed his fundamental belief that government should help ordinary citizens lead a more secure, prosperous life to live freely in the United States and around the world.

President Roosevelt’s Freedoms were questioning if government was going to seek Freedoms from Speech, Worship, Want, and Fear to remove certain barriers with the US and globally. The President questioned the freedom to live in a country and pray in any religious institution, or none as one desired; to speak freely without violence and without limitations of any free society; to live freely; and to have equal opportunity for educational development, for health, and for recreation, which is all part of the development of a human being capable of coping with the modern world.

One result of that speech was the inspiration it provided to the American artist Norman Rockwell. The following year he embarked on his own project to illustrate Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms.

Rockwell created four paintings depicting simple family scenes, illustrating freedoms Americans often take for granted. In 1943 his paintings were published in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post. The paintings, according to The Norman Rockwell Museum, “were a phenomenal success.”

In addition to FDR and Norman Rockwell, other influential leaders fighting for freedom and transformed ideology in this country and around the world included Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The lecture on November 15, which is expected to run one hour, will explain why understanding FDR and Rockwell’s Freedoms are timeless themes today.

The community is invited to illustrate their own ideas of Freedom, mimicking the classic covers of The Saturday Evening Post. Drawings should be done on 8½ by 11-inch paper, and then delivered by November 17 to Newtown Community Center, 8 Simpson Street.

The collection will then be displayed on the “Freedom Wall.”

Registration is required, and can be done by sending an e-mail to newcong@sbcglobal.net. A link to the lecture will be sent back as registration confirmation.

The lecture will be suitable for all ages.