For Freedoms proudly announces the launch of a three-year artist residency with The National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University. The residency seeks to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to encourage innovative and accessible approaches to arts research and public practice, anchored by the theme of interdependence.
The residency's inaugural events took place from October 4-6 and featured talks, installations, workshops, and more. An archival exhibition of For Freedoms' billboards and past activations and installations from all 50 states is also still on view.
Public facing activations included an installation of For Freedoms billboards created by artists from across the nation and public talks hosted at the National Gallery of Art. Public talks included speakers John Grinspan and Helina Metaferia in conversation about the Wide Awakes movement, Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Wyatt Gallery, and Michelle Woo talking about the founding of For Freedoms, creativity as a democratic value, and art as activism, a works-in-progress film screening discussion with Wasaam Al-Badry, an investigative journalist and interdisciplinary artist, and a discussion with new media photojournalist and artist Jessica Ingram on her newly published book, We Are Carver.
Full list of Corcoran faculty, National Gallery staff, and For Freedoms artists included in the organizing, designing, and facilitating of the events included Suse Anderson, Michele Carlson, Anna Kimmel, Carmen Montoya, Aasawari Kulkarni, Susan Sterner, Nidhi Singh Rathore, Clement Akpang, Nandita Raman, Autumn Breon, Danny Mekonnen, Mel Harper, Damon Reaves, and Lena Stringari.