For Freedoms: Billboards On View


October 8, 2024

For Freedoms: Billboards On View

On View: October 9 - December 14, 2024; Wednesday - Saturday, 1-5 pm
Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, Flagg Building (500 17th Street NW), Second Floor

Imagine that you are driving down a highway when you spot a thought-provoking billboard showing an extreme close-up image of the upper part of a human face. All you can see are the person’s eyes and the inscription, “Do you see me for who I am or what you think I am?”

This is just one of many artists’ billboards currently on display (in smaller reproductions) at the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, housed in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, on view through December 14.

The billboards were created by artists associated with For Freedoms, a nonprofit collective centering art as a catalyst for civic engagement, conversation and action. For the next three years, this artist-led collective is in residence hosted in partnership between the Corcoran and the National Gallery of Art. Billboards created by For Freedoms artists have appeared in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

The exhibit is part of the official launch of the For Freedoms residency. 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. Read more here.