Join us Wednesday, August 5, for a truly special First Wednesday Opening Reception as we celebrate a limited-run, multi-site presentation of Free as They Want to Be: Artists Committed to Memory. The evening will include complimentary beverages and bites, as well as live music from Baton Rouge’s own Michael Foster Project.
Curated by Deborah Willis and Cheryl Finley, Ph.D., the exhibition is a presentation of contemporary art inspired by historical memory. The exhibition considers the idea of personal freedom - through comparative perspectives – through the lens of photography and film’s role in remembering the legacies of slavery. Featuring pieces from some of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists (Bisa Butler, Carrie Mae Weems, Dawoud Bey, Hank Willis Thomas, Radcliffe Bailey, and many others) alongside historical pieces like 19th-century portraits by photographer J.P. Ball, the exhibition explores migration, identity, and the African diaspora.
The adaptation of Free as They Want to Be for its presentation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will see the works thoughtfully allocated across three historically resonant sites so the original curatorial thesis literally inhabits Baton Rouge’s built memory: (1) BRG, which inhabits a former pool house that was the site of the 1963 Baton Rouge Swim-In protest; (2) Southern University, an HBCU on river-parish land shaped by plantation histories; and (3) The West Baton Rouge Museum, the only museum to trace the bittersweet history of sugar in Louisiana from the colonial period to the present day.
As always First Wednesdays are free & open to all.
