Art exhibit launches Churchill museum's 50th anniversary celebration

FULTON, Mo. -- A mid-Missouri museum honoring Winston Churchill will launch its 50th anniversary celebration Tuesday with an art exhibit featuring the work of roughly 4,000 students.

Officials with America's National Churchill Museum on the campus at Westminster College in Fulton said the art was inspired by the words of Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech. The longtime British prime minister delivered the speech at Westminster in 1946, the phrase "Iron Curtain" describing the separation of Eastern Europe that was under Soviet Union rule.

The artwork was painted by students from the Fulton area, along with Westminster faculty, staff and students. The exhibit is titled "Special Relationship Project," a nod to a phrase also coined by Churchill in the 1946 speech to describe the alliance between Great Britain and the U.S.