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Freedom of Speech

Freedom from Fear

Freedom from Want

Freedom of Worship

We believe citizenship is defined by participation, not by ideology.

Through non-partisan nationwide programming, we use art as a vehicle for participation to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values. We are a hub for artists, arts partners, and citizens who want to be more engaged in public life.

What we do

Billboards

For Freedoms outdoor activations invite artists to use the tools of art and advertising to encourage civic engagement. We believe that if artists’ voices replace advertising across the country, public discourse will become more nuanced.

Town Halls

Traditionally used by politicians as forums to connect with their constituencies, answer questions, and promote their campaigns, For Freedoms Town Halls provide safe platforms for conversations that seek to encourage a more active, collaborative, inclusive, and empathetic community. Town Halls bring together experts in various disciplines such as art, design, policy making, and community organizing in cities across the country to discuss issues related to freedom.

Exhibitions

For Freedoms exhibitions engage local perspectives on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: affirming the inalienable human rights of freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Lawn Signs and more...

In 2018, For Freedoms launched the largest creative collaboration in our nation's history, the  50 State Initiative. During the midterm election season, we held over 600 concurrent decentralized public events across the country with over 250 partners that reflected a multiplicity of voices and sparked a national dialogue about art, education, commerce, and politics. On our platform, you’ll see all of the incredible activations that happened this past fall, in addition to others that the For Freedoms community continues to put on today.

50 STATE INITIATIVE & BEYOND

In 2018, For Freedoms launched the largest creative collaboration in our nation's history, the  50 State Initiative. During the midterm election season, we held over 600 concurrent decentralized public events across the country with over 250 partners that reflected a multiplicity of voices and sparked a national dialogue about art, education, commerce, and politics. On our platform, you’ll see all of the incredible activations that happened this past fall, in addition to others that the For Freedoms community continues to put on today.

Featured Projects

We are For Freedoms

We Are For Freedoms

Greensboro

UNCG For Freedoms Lawn Signs Project in NYC

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Community Feed

Guadalupe Rosales, Brown is Beautiful

Guadalupe Rosales is an artist and archivist who is building an archive of vernacular photographs and ephemera connected to Latinx culture. Guided by an instinct to create counter narratives, Rosales tells the stories of communities often underrepresented in official archives and public memory

October 26, 2019

Christine Sun Kim, Enough

Christine Sun Kim is a sound artist who has been deaf since birth. Her work examines communication and connects sound to drawing, performance, and painting to create new systems of information.

October 26, 2019

guess this is what happens when food becomes thought

crackers on masonite

Billboard Exhibition Other Public Program

Lisa Charde

I am Charlotte, NC based artist working for social justice.

Celebrating our Four Freedoms

Hampstead Public Library celebrated our freedoms with lawn signs and postcards to write and draw on.

Batzell

New England based Sculptor working in Public Art.

THEY ARE US/ US IS THEM

The THEY ARE US/ US IS THEM billboard mural is on view in the Brooklyn Navy Yard through November 30, 2019. This is one of For Freedoms' original billboard designs from 2016 by Hank Willis Thomas and Jon Santos. You can find it at the intersection of Flushing Ave and Waverly Ave in Brooklyn, NY.

November 4, 2019

Turner Free Library

The Friends of the Turner Free Library is a volunteer nonprofit group that supports the public library of Randolph, MA through fundraising, programming, book discussion groups, and community advocacy. We are actively looking for new members to help with many exciting initiatives to benefit the people of Randolph, and we encourage you to contact us at [email protected]

Town Hall Discussion on Art and Activism

Artists Zoë Buckman and Stuart Sheldon will begin by sharing the evolution of their activist practices and personal benchmarks for success, specifically in relation to their billboard projects for the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, the largest creative collaboration in US history. Buckman and Sheldon will then be joined by Chire Regans “VantaBlack,” visual artist, mother, truth-teller, and activist; Marleine Bastien, social worker, founder and Executive Director of Family Action Network Movement (FANM); Kathryn Mikesell, co-founder of The Fountainhead Residency and Studios; and Dan Gelber, Mayor of Miami Beach. Following the town hall discussion enjoy live DJ sets by Fempower, art-making, and drink specials on the terrace. This event is generously supported by Oolite Arts. For more information, visit: https://www.pamm.org/calendar/2019/10/pamm-free-community-night-freedoms-town-hall

jc lenochan

“Everything we see has the potential to become inexplicably something else in terms of social justice and trans-pedagogy, wherein concepts dictate materials and process. Thinking and re-thinking possibilities though critical discourse in the canon of art history to create a new way of seeing the world as a new human in undoing whiteness.”

For Freedoms Sign Project

This year, the teens of Brookline participated in the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative. While most political decisions are being made by adults, these lawn signs represent the hopes of Brookline's teens for their lives, their communities, their country, and their world. Stop by and see them in front of the Brookline Village Library! Generously Sponsored by the Friends of the Brookline Public Library. Created in partnership with the Public Schools of Brookline and the Brookline Teen Center.

For Freedoms Sign Project

Teens of Brookline were invited to the library to express their dreams, fears, and hopes for the future by filling out a lawn sign. The event is a collaboration between the library, the Brookline Teen Center and the Public Schools of Brookline, allowing teens to reflect what they wish for their lives, their communities, their country, and their world.

September 30, 2019

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Our supporters

Bromley Foundation

DDI

Ford Foundation

Illumination fund

Lamar

MSS MEDIA

Openbox

pentagram

Rutter Family

Silicon Valley

Unbound

WESTRIDGE

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