A new Illini Union gallery titled Remembering Vietnam, a collection of 28 silk-screen prints painted by a University alumna, artist Mary Cady Johnson, opened April 14.

“This is a timely exhibition. The exhibition is around the same time as the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War,” which occurred April 30, 1975, said Wesley Epplin, junior in LAS and intern for the Illini Union Director’s office.

The 28 silk-screen prints for this exhibition were found by accident about six years ago in the mechanical room of a sub-basement in the Illini Union, according to John Hammer II, assistant director for operations.

Each print contains parts from a speech entitled “A generation in search of a future,” delivered by the late Nobel Laureate George Wald in 1969 to protest the United States’ involvement in Vietnam, said Paula Urtubey-Fish, graduate student and intern for the Illini Union Director’s office.

The exhibit reflects the sentiment that was among the people during that time, Urtubey-Fish said. One print shows starving Vietnamese with a background full of soldiers with guns preceded Wald’s quote that stated, “Education has become irrelevant.”

Johnson died in 2003 at age 88. She graduated in 1935 with a fine arts degree and painted the prints between 1969 and 1972 while she was president of the Las Vegas art league. She also worked as vice-president of the Nevada Council of the Arts during that time.

“The exhibition must be seen all at once to get the whole picture,” Urtubey-Fish said.

Because each print focuses on a segment of a speech, the pieces are numbered at the bottom and should be viewed in that order, as indicated by the map provided at the exhibit entrance.

“Try to take time to see the exhibit,” said Rick Larimore, an Urbana resident who visited the exhibition in order to understand the message.

There were about 30 people in attendance for the opening of the exhibit, which runs through May 22, Urtubey-Fish said.