For Freedoms is an artist-run platform for civic engagement, discourse, and direct action for artists in the United States. Co-founded by Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Michelle Woo, and Wyatt Gallery in 2016,[1] For Freedoms has partnered with US-based institutions and artists for activations including town halls, exhibitions and installations, public programs, billboard campaigns, and artist residencies. In June 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative, described as the "largest-ever public art project in the US".[2]
The initiative held residency at MoMA PS1 for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. Laboratory for Freedoms[8] was an activation space for public meetings, town halls, and performances. That summer, For Freedoms held an artist's workshop for MoMA and curated Aperture Foundation's Summer Open exhibition On Freedom.[9] As well, the group continued doing town halls and billboards in collaboration with Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
In 2017, For Freedoms Federation, LLC was created to engage with educational partners in order to activate the cultural infrastructure of the country in the pursuit of social change. For Freedoms Federation acts as a hub for other artists, arts institutions, and activists who want to be more engaged with the current political system in all of the fifty states and Puerto Rico with the stated aim of making democracy more transparent and responsive. In 2018, all For Freedoms activation began operating under the federation as opposed to the PAC.
In 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative, the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history. In the fall of 2018, For Freedoms launched a major billboard campaign in every state ahead of the 2016 November midterm congressional election. The project was meant to inspire more people to participate in civic life and broadening the concept of what democratic participation looks like. To realize the hugely ambitious project, For Freedoms partnered with more than 200 American art organizations, from grassroots art centers to major museums, and even international groups and funded the project through Kickstarter. The campaign included over 150 contemporary artists, including Marilyn Minter, Rashid Johnson, Guerrilla Girls, and Theaster Gates, among others.[10]
Four Freedoms photographs
In October 2018, For Freedoms also launched a photo campaign entitled Four Freedoms. In collaboration with photographers Emily Shur and Wyatt Gallery, Hank Willis Thomas and For Freedoms transformed Norman Rockwell's depictions of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1941 address to Congress, which articulated FDR's vision of the four basic human freedoms.[11] Thomas wrote that "The image haunted me because of the world we live in. I wanted to imagine what it would look like today."[11] Through dozens of iterations of Rockwell's original four paintings, the 82 images in the campaign attempted to reflect the immeasurable diversity of American identities today. Celebrities such as Rosario Dawson, Dolores Huerta, Gina Belafonte, Van Jones, Jesse Williams, Robert A. Nakamura and Karen L. Ishizuka, Kiran Gandhi, Michael Ealy, Saul Williams, Rodney Barnette, and others were included in the reinterpretations. The new version of the images were widely shared on social media and Instagram, including by celebrities such as Alicia Keys and Jada Pinkett-Smith.[12]
The modernization of the Freedom of Worship image was featured on the November 26, 2018, cover of Time magazine along with the question "Who Gets To Be American?"[13]
2020 Awakening
In fall 2020, For Freedoms announced the 2020 Awakening campaign[14] centered around the new four freedoms of awakening listening, healing, and justice. The campaign, inspired by the 1860s youth-led organization which championed the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Wide Awakes, features billboards as well as digital advertising spaces. Among the artists who planned to participate in the 2020 Awakening campaign included Christine Sun Kim, the Guerrilla Girls, Alfredo Jaar, Edgar Heap of Birds, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Marilyn Minter, and Carlos Motta, as well as curators Jasmine Wahi and Rujeko Hockley.[15] An accompanying digital publication, the Infinite Playbook, outlines how individuals and institutions participate in collective action to increase voter engagement and build a cultural and political identity around listening, healing, and justice.[16]
Selected For Freedoms artists
For Freedoms has worked with more than 800 artists working in the United States.
Some For Freedoms artists include:
A For Freedoms activation is typically a billboard, exhibition, or an artist-led town hall, though activations have also taken the form of public programs, installations, bus stop benches, public meetings, advertisements, and lawn signs.[17]
2018
Margin and Center, Houston Center for Photography, Fotofest Biennial, Houston, TX
