For Freedoms 2018
In fall 2018, projects+gallery led a series of citywide exhibitions and activations in St. Louis in partnership with For Freedoms, the artist-led platform founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman to encourage dialogue around race, art, education, advertising, and politics.
Organized by Susan Barrett and independent curator Modou Dieng, the project included artist-designed billboards by Hank Willis Thomas, Michele Pred, and Derrick Adams, installed throughout the city ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. At projects+gallery, the exhibition Cry of Victory and Short Walks to Freedom brought together fourteen artists whose work explored civic engagement, creative resistance, and the possibility of dialogue and change.
Participating artists included Derrick Adams, Kwame Brathwaite, Bunny Burson, Jen Everett, Shabez Jamal, Rodolfo Marron III, Fabrice Monteiro, Esmaa Mohamoud, Alexis Peskine, Michele Pred, Aram Han Sifuentes, Xaviera Simmons, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kennedy Yanko.
The project also included public programs and educational outreach, including interactive lawn-sign activations created in collaboration with cultural and educational partners across St. Louis.
Documentation
Artists
Modou Dieng
Modou Dieng was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal. He is a multidisciplinary artist and curator exploring the symbolic and mythological power of pop culture icons through mixed media and hybrid materials. His work constructs a mural of archetypal cultural imagery filtered through the perspective of a split identity between Blackness and Western Philosophy. Dieng has exhibited internationally and is the co-founder of Blackpuffin a curatorial team based in Chicago. Dieng holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
About THE 50 State Initiative
Since 2016, For Freedoms has produced special exhibitions, town hall meetings, billboards, and lawn sign installations to spur greater participation in civic life. This year, For Freedoms launched its 50 State Initiative, a new phase of programming to encourage broad participation and inspire conversation around November’s midterm elections. Building off of the existing artistic infrastructure in the United States, For Freedoms has developed a network of over 300 artists and 200 institutional partners who will produce nationwide public art installations, exhibitions and local community dialogues in order to inject nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse. Centered around the vital work of artists, For Freedoms hopes that these exhibitions and related projects will model how arts institutions can become civic forums for action and discussion of values, place, and patriotism.
