2016

Year in Review _ _ P 2 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

ART

COMMERCE POLITICS

ACTIVISM _ _ P 3 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 4 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

For Freedoms is a platform for civic engagement, discourse and direct action for artists in the . _ _ P 5 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 6 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

We aim to model how art and discourse can engage communities. For Freedoms uses OUR data to map and mobilize the existing cultural infrastructure MISSION of art in the United States toward broader civic participation through identification, activation and dispersion. _ _ P 7 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW YEAR ONE: WHERE WE’VE BEEN _ _ P 9 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

Founded as a super PAC in 2016 by social practice and new media artists and Eric Gottesman who built a team of artists, philanthropists, art directors, musicians, filmmakers, curators, organizations and independent strategists YEAR equally devoted to civic engagement and art. In its first year For Freedoms raised $200,000 in operating capital allowing it to partner with over 40 institutions and 60 artists while ONE reaching millions through press reports.

The group has campaigned through gallery exhibitions, advertisements, public meetings, museum partnerships to claim political space for art and reshape political dialogue. _ _ P 10 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 11 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

STATE ACTIVATIONS

BILLBOARDS (28 Cities) CREATED

1,363,402 WEEKLY BILLBOARD VIEWS

(FOR THE MONTH LEADING UP TO THE 2016 ELECTIONS)

COLLABORATORS _ _ P 12 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

In twelve short months, working JANUARY 2016 JULY SEPTEMBER • For Freedoms was registered with the • For Freedoms engaged thousands • Artist Bayeté Ross Smith led Take Aim, with dozens of institutions, Federal Election Commission and the of people during a day-long mobile a For Freedoms event at Neuehouse hundreds of artists and reaching IRS and incorporated as the first artist- campaign headquarters at the Brooklyn and the Westside Rifle and Pistol Range run Super PAC Museum intended to deepen the conversation millions of viewers, we went from about gun violence and the Second APRIL • Ligorano and Reese created Melted Away for the Democratic National Amendment concept to national campaign. • broke the story Convention in Philadelphia and the • Our yard signs began to go viral online of the founding of For Freedoms Here is a quick review of what Republican National Convention in and around the country, including an JUNE we accomplished with your help and streamed it live with For early installation of them at the Jack • We opened our headquarters and our Freedoms Shainman School in Kinderhook and in 2016. inaugural exhibition at Jack Shainman • sparked a national on the wall at NY Live Arts th Gallery on 24 St conversation about police brutality • For Freedoms College Chapters were • Cultured Magazine featured by hanging a flag at our exhibition/ formed at both Vassar and Bowdoin, For Freedoms on its cover headquarters initiating a strategy to engage students • Domingo Borges from the Prison to • Holland Cotter reviewed our show on campuses around the country College Pipeline began a residency with for the New York Times • We held the first of four For Freedoms

For Freedoms to educate about art and AUGUST Town Halls (on Freedom of Worship) at prison reform The Mistake Room in Los Angeles, CA • For Freedoms presented our work • Artsy hosted an “Off-Site” event with at the Aspen Art Museum • We created a virtual and physical For Freedoms installation with MTV for the First • We produced murals at the Afropunk Presidential Debate • For Freedoms’ second exhibition Festival in opened at Jack Shainman Gallery on • Our mobile campaign booth moved • We installed six For Freedoms benches 20th St to EXPO around Chicago in collaboration with • Artist Dread Scott began a residency Monique Meloche Gallery • For Freedoms released the first-ever with For Freedoms to produce an anti- advertisements in Hyperallergic’s Fall campaign advertisement Art Guide _ _ P 13 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

SEPTEMBER (cont’d) with the Mistake Room in • We were featured in the featuring the lawn signs • Our residency at MoMA/PS1 • We participated in a panel hosted Los Angeles, CA exhibition Dispatches, a show as well as work by Zoë Buckman, during the first 100 days of the by Spotify in Chicago on Art and • We presented at the Carter at the Southeastern Center Bayeté Ross Smith, Stuart Trump Administration, called Civil Rights Center in Atlanta, GA for Contemporary Art that Sheldon, Jackie Nickerson, and Laboratory For Freedoms, presented artistic responses to Will Steacy. opened during the presidential OCTOBER • Critic David Levi Strauss live- current events and critical issues • We partnered with Summit at inauguration ceremony on • The Triangle Arts Association blogged for us during the of our time Sea to create a Mobile Billboard January 20, 2017. hosted us for a panel on art and 3rd Presidential Debate • For Freedoms installed a which drove around Miami politics • W Magazine released billboard at the Cleveland Public for week displaying our For advertisements produced by • Our lawn signs continue Library Freedoms video reel. popping up across the nation: For Freedoms with artist Zoë • We participated in a panel • The billboard in Pearl, MS at Univision’s Rise Up As One Buckman on Arts and Activism at the sparked widespread media Event in San Diego, CA; at Flux • We released a national Billboard Metropolitan Museum of Art for attention and was featured on Project Yard Sign Display in Campaign with billboards Met Fridays CNN, Now This News, The Atlanta, GA; in Oakland CA at in , CO; Flint, MI; Pacific Tribune, and elsewhere. Montclair Elementary School; Columbus, OH; Lexington, KY; • For Freedoms hosted a Town at New York University; at Memphis, TN; Pearl, MS; New Hall at MOCA Cleveland, this DECEMBER CPE1 in New York City; and in Orleans, LA; Tallahassee, FL; has since expanded into year • For Freedoms lawn signs made Kansas City, MO at the Kemper and Harrisburg, PA long series of For Freedoms an appearance at the Forward Museum Town Halls at the museum that Union Fair, a political and NOVEMBER is to begin Fall 2017. • We presented at the Creative community action info fair, in • We made a guest appearance Time Summit in Wash., DC • Our final town hall (Freedom NYC and in Miami at a dinner at the Performa Gala in NYC from Want) with the Mistake hosted by Kickstarter during Art • Our second town hall (on where we set up a For Freedoms Room was held at the Luckman Basel. ) was held Photobooth for attendees to Gallery in Los Angeles. at the International Center dress up, fill out lawn signs, and JANUARY 2017 of Photography in New York take photos. • We presented at the Creative • For Freedoms was awarded the and our second town hall (on Capital Retreat. prestigious 2017 ICP Infinity Freedom from Fear) was held • For Freedoms installed a 100 ft Award for Online Platform and at NeueHouse in collaboration billboard on a wall in Wynwood, New Media COLUMBUS, OH DENVER, CO FLINT, MI

HARRISBURG, PA LEXINGTON, KY MEMPHIS, TN

NEW ORLEANS, LA OAKLAND, CA TALLAHASSEE, FL _ _ P 15 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 16 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

$51,000 $139,500

(Raised through Partnerships) (Raised through SuperPac directly) _ _ P 17 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

PRESS COVERAGE NY Times July 14, 2016 _ _ P 18 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

PRESS COVERAGE CNN November 21, 2016 _ _ P 19 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

PRESS COVERAGE Fox 5 News _ _ P 20 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW YEAR TWO: WHERE WE GO FROM HERE _ _ P 22 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 23 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

As a nation, this moment provides a unique opportunity to rethink what political action can mean, how change is made, how to engage the public with essential questions outside of electoral politics.

In the next phase of our work, For Freedoms will embark on a state-by-state strategy to model how YEAR art can reach non-art audiences and how artists can build a network of action, dialogue and community. As an organization, we will continue to innovate, and to develop and disperse tools to activate the existing TWO cultural infrastructure toward greater political and civic engagement.

Our first step to expand our own capacity to build this movement around an inclusive vision of America. We & BEYOND are in the process of restructuring so we can use all available kinds of activities to bring about the nation in which we want to live. _ _ P 24 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW _ _ P 25 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

OUR TEAM

HANK WILLIS THOMAS & ERIC GOTTESMAN,Co-Founders

WYATT GALLERY, Executive Director

MICHELLE WOO, Director

JOEONNA BELLORADO-SAMUELS, Director

DENA MULLER, Project Management & Development

TAYLOR BROCK, Administrative Assistant

ALBERT JAMES IGNACIO, Creative Consultant

JON SANTOS, Graphic Designer _ _ P 26 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

ARTISTIC Pablo Helguera Norman Rockwell INSTITUTIONAL The Mistake Room COLLABORATORS Rujeko Hockley Jon Santos COLLABORATORS MOCA Cleveland Nina Chanel Abney Sohrab Hura Andres Serrano Afropunk Monique Meloche Gallery Amy Adler Sophia Keleta Ignacio Stuart Sheldon Anderson Ranch MTV Yorgo Alexopoulos Albert James Ignacio Bayeté Ross Smith Art Africa Miami Neuehouse Edgar Arceneaux Matthew Day Jackson Dread Scott Artsy New York Live Arts Shimon Attie Alfredo Jaar Aspen Art Museum New York University Firelei Báez Rashid Johnson Alex Soth Bowdoin College Performa Domingo Borges Glenn Kaino Will Steacy Brooklyn Museum Pier 24 Andrea Bowers Titus Kaphar Mikhael Subotzky Creative Time Postcards From America Zoë Buckman Coby Kennedy Emma Sulkowicz Crowdpac Prison-to-College Pipeline Rashida Bumbray Jamilah King Hank Willis Thomas Edition Hotels Southeastern Center for Charlene Caruthers Jemima Kirke EXPO Chicago Contemporary Art Heather Cassils Nora Ligorano Fred Tomaselli Flux Projects Spotify Paula Crown Betsy MacLean Mark Tribe Hyperallergic Summit Co. Baz Dreisinger Marilyn Minter Laurence Tribe The International Center SVT Kobra Wendy Ewald Aida Muluneh Katrina Walker of Photography Wyatt Gallery Jackie Nickerson Nari Ward Triangle Arts Association Jack Shainman Gallery Chitra Ganesh Trevor Paglen Leslie Wayne Univision The Joyce Foundation Maria Gaspar Cheryl Pope Todd Webb Vassar College Kemper Museum of Mariam Ghani Michele Pred Carrie Mae Weems W Magazine Contemporary Art Jim Goldberg People’s Kitchen Collective Ahron Weiner Kickstarter Eric Gottesman Kameelah Janan Rasheed Deborah Willis LaGuardia Community College Marshall Reese Rosa White The Metropolitan Museum of Art Caran Hartsfield Jim Ricks _ _ P 27 2016 FOR FREEDOMS YEAR IN REVIEW

ADVISORY MAJOR BOARD CO-CHAIRS SUPPORTERS Sharon Hoffman Barbara Berger Ellen Susman Arlene Bronstein Bunni Copaken OUR DONORS FOUNDING Paula Crown SUPPORTERS Rebecca Donelson Barbara Alfond Gail Engelberg We want to thank our donors for their Anonymous Sherry Felson Jill Bernstein Barbara Fosco visionary support in the inaugural year Pam Joseph & Rob Brinker Barbara Good-Gamson Bunny & Charles Burson Susan Gordon & Scott Francis of For Freedoms. We have so much to Jane & Bob Clark Kevin Johnson Beth Rudin DeWoody Donna & Ward Katz learn and look forward to working with Christy & Bill Gautreaux Jonathan Lee Sharon & John Hoffman Nancy Magoon you to broaden our impact. Toby Lewis Gael Neeson Sara Morgan Robert Roth Cathy Schleussner Pamela Sanders Barbara Karp Shuster Damany Weir Jonathan Soros Toma & Andy Wolff Ellen & Steve Susman Laurie M. Tisch Sarah & Gary Wolkowitz Jack Shainman Gallery _ _ _ WEB EMAIL SOCIAL WWW.FORFREEDOMS.ORG [email protected] @FORFREEDOMS

THANK YOU