National Gallery | Corcoran School of the Arts & Design | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences

Corcoran School and National Gallery of Art
Announce Pioneering Three-Year Artistic Residency
for Artist-Led Organization For Freedoms

Launching with three days of inaugural programming October 4-6, 2024, the residency emphasizes experimental approaches to art and civic participation.

About the Collaboration

In 2023, a new agreement between the George Washington University, the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Gallery of Art unveiled a new initiative to facilitate immersive learning, art-making and interdisciplinary research that will drive exhibitions, performances and curriculum at the Corcoran School.

The partnership includes space for students, artists, community members, museum professionals and faculty to collaborate as well as opportunities for students to gain hands-on learning with National Gallery experts. We want to foster work that is civically engaged, interdisciplinary and collaborative. The work will be experimental and help us consider how to do what we do differently.

For Freedoms Residency

The partnership is supporting a three-year residency program (2024-2027) with For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that centers art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. The residency is driven by a theme of interdependence and supports long term projects that have a lasting impact on the school, the National Gallery, and broader DC community beyond the typical school year schedule.

For Freedoms will develop collaborative programming centered around research, inquiry, and experiments that expand systematic modes of thinking and participation within traditional art structures. Civic engagement will be a central component running through the programming series.

SPACE

For Freedoms Convening: Oct. 4-6

The For Freedoms Residency Launch (a convening) will be held on October 4-6, a multi-day series of programs. Programming will introduce For Freedoms artists and projects to the community with an emphasis on inquiry; question asking and question making. Thematic threads throughout the three days include topics such as interdependence, mobilization, and civic inquiry.

RSVP (GENERAL PUBLIC)

RSVP (CORCORAN/GW)

Corcoran faculty included in the organizing, designing, and facilitating of the events include Clement Akpang, Suse Anderson, Michele Carlson, Anna Kimmel, Carmen Montoya, Aasawari Kulkarni, Susan Sterner, and Nidhi Singh Rathore. Participating artists and curators include Phillip Brookman, Damon Reaves, John Grinspan, Helina Metaferia, Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Nekisha Durrett, Nour Batyne, Wasaam Al-Badry, and Jessica Ingram.

Full schedule of events can be found here.

SPACE

UPCOMING EVENTS

SPACE

CORCORAN SCHOOL AND NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART PRESS

Viewers admire final projects by Corcoran interior architecture students at the NEXT Festival in spring 2023. (William Atkins/GW Today)

GW’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and the National Gallery of Art Collaborate on New Home for Emerging Art and Education

First major programmatic partnership between the National Gallery and a university to provide immersive learning opportunities for students. Read More

George Washington University, National Gallery of Art, Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery Advance Historic Partnership

First major programmatic partnership between the National Gallery and a university serves their missions as incubators for students, artists and scholars. Read More

Corcoran School of the Arts and Design Joins National Gallery of Art to Host Three-Year Artists’ Residency

For Freedoms is an artist-led organization dedicated to fostering civic engagement. Read More

Exhibition Planning Project Management Steve Mann Oct 2023

Partnership Gives Students Behind-the-Scenes Access

A first look at the partnership’s early accomplishments, the beginning of a much broader and deeper collaboration in the months to come.
Read More

GW Students Given an Inside Look at Organizing Art Museum Exhibitions

A deep dive into exhibition planning and project management was presented by Steve Mann, head of exhibitions for the National Gallery of Art, to nearly two dozen students at GW’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
Read More

NGA Corcoran Workshop with Mary Morton and Caroline Woolard

Old School Meets New School in Workshop on Curatorial Strategies

Differing curatorial approaches were presented in a workshop by Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, and Caroline Woolard, this year’s William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor of Community Engagement, at GW’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
Read More

Submit your ideas for future engagement via this form:

FACULTY SUBMISSION FORM

Select photos from National Gallery/Corcoran programming

Reflection of Woman

Past work of For Freedoms. Mahvash Mostala, Reflection of Woman | نز†ساکعنا, New York, NY, 2022, Eyes on Iran, Photographed by Austin Paz, Image courtesy of Even/Odd.

Future Ancestral Technologies: We Survive You

Past work of For Freedoms. Cannupa Hanska Luger, Future Ancestral Technologies: We Survive You, Mandan (Standing Rock), 2021, Landback.Art, Photographed by Justin Deegan.

Billboards campaign

Images from For Freedoms’ Billboards campaign, part of their 50 State Initiative, which asks “How can artists spark honest dialogue and reflection about issues that affect them locally and nationally?” Since 2016, For Freedoms has been inserting artists’ voices into the American media landscape.

Wide Awakes at Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Past work of For Freedoms. Wide Awakes at Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles CA. Photograph by Jessica Chappe. For Freedoms Congress, 2020.

Chaos or Community?

Past work of For Freedoms. For Freedoms x Combo©, Chaos or Community?, Denver, CO. Photograph by Jeff Scroggins. In Collaboration with McCourt Global and Orange Barrel Media. For Freedoms 2020 Awakening, 2020.

Atrium of the historic Flagg Building

Atrium of the historic Flagg Building at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. Future residency events will be hosted here as well as at the National Gallery of Art.

Corcoran students

Corcoran students at the National Gallery of Art (2023-24).

Performance at the National Gallery of Art

Performance at the National Gallery of Art (2023-24).

Michael Lapthorn Sculpture Garden Nov 2023

In November 2023, Corcoran students were led through the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden by its Chief of Design Michael Lapthorn, in a client-designer scenario. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Press Office.

Students in Prof. Mary Coughlin’s “Preventative Conservation Concepts” course learn about the intricacies of caring for art under various conditions. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art. 2023

Photojournalism student presenting at the National Gallery of Art’s Dorothea Lange: Seeing People exhibition, discussing how her work still impacts their photographic studies. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Photojournalism student sheds light on Dorothea Lange’s contributions to humanizing the effects of the Great Depression through her photography, at the National Gallery of Art’s Dorothea Lange: Seeing People exhibition. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art. 2023

Photojournalism student sheds light on Dorothea Lange’s contributions to humanizing the effects of the Great Depression through her photography, at the National Gallery of Art’s Dorothea Lange: Seeing People exhibition (November 5, 2023 – March 31, 2024). Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Corcoran student Sage Wilson presents pop-up talks at "Nightmare at the Museum" in 2023, a part of the NGA's National Gallery Nights. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Museum Studies student Meta Miller guides visitors through art at "Nightmare at the Museum" in 2023, a part of the NGA's National Gallery Nights. Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Corcoran music & dance students at the National Gallery of Art for “Modulating Movements.” The two part series was a unique event presenting collaborations between electronic music composition and students of dance choreography, led by faculty members Heather Stebbins and Anna Kimmel. This immersive series was hosted by the National Gallery, as a part of their monthly First Saturday series.

As a part of the Corcoran Workshop Series, students received a detailed view of organizing museum exhibitions by Steve Mann, the head of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art. Mann described his many job responsibilities and explained how exhibition planning branches out into the many areas of the art world. Photo courtesy of GW Today.

Corcoran music and dance students were invited to perform “Modulating Movements: Sonic and Kinesthetic Interpretations of Sculptural Works" at the National Gallery as part of the new collaboration between the Corcoran and the Gallery. This unique event showcased students of electronic music composition and dance choreography, led by Corcoran faculty members Heather Stebbins and Anna Kimmel.

CONTACT & RESOURCES

Campus Address

Flagg Building
500 17th St, NW

Program Information

Program Manager
Babette Pendleton
[email protected]

Faculty & Student Resources

Student Resources

Faculty Resources