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“What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel,” an exhibition of paintings by Sean Fitzgibbon, can be viewed in the Glassblock Gallery in the Fred J. Taylor Library and Technology Center at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) from October 4 to November 15. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

“What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel” is a haunting and beautiful, hand-painted, exhaustively researched, 240-page nonfiction graphic novel that depicts the mythologies surrounding the Crescent Hotel’s strange history as the Baker Hospital, a Depression Era cancer hospital in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The graphic nonfiction blends oral histories, newspaper articles and Norman Baker’s biography to examine this strange and controversial legend, as well as the rise and fall of a demagogue.

Artist Sean Fitzgibbon explores unusual, real places and events through his work. He has an MFA in art and a passion for making art and visual storytelling. He is a 2021 Artists 360 recipient and a 2022 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Award for graphic nonfiction. Fitzgibbon has exhibited work throughout the US and also writes and illustrates documentary-style graphic nonfiction books.

On November 15 from 1 to 3 p.m., Fitzgibbon will give an artist talk in the Visual and Performing Arts Complex on UAM’s campus. The artist talk will be followed by a closing reception for the exhibition in the Glassblock Gallery from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The exhibition and events are free and open to the public.