by Wendy (Navratil) Donahue ('92)
There, a recent Andy Warhol acquisition and other selected works touch on four essential human freedoms articulated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in 1941. Viewing those artworks in Sheldon’s “For Freedoms” exhibition — a local iteration of a national civic activation effort — might stimulate civil conversations that spill from Sheldon’s travertine halls onto Lincoln sidewalks, ultimately propelling voters to polling places for the midterm elections.
That’s the vision behind the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, conceived by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, and artist/writer/educator Eric Gottesman. The two longtime collaborators founded the art-driven super PAC called “For Freedoms” in 2016, inspired by Norman Rockwell’s paintings of FDR’s four freedoms — freedom of speech and worship, as well as freedom from want and fear.
Their latest project, the 50 State Initiative, encompasses concurrent art exhibitions and public events across the country from September through December, all meant to convert political vitriol into productive engagement in the democratic process, with art as a moderator of sorts.
“Our idea is if we insert artists’ voices into overly simplified discourse, we can add nuance into the conversation that’s really missing right now,” Gottesman said. “One thing I should say is we are vigorously anti-partisan with For Freedoms. We don’t necessarily believe in right or left; we don’t believe in facile political labels. The message is to participate.”
To read the rest of this story, please visit https://www.huskeralum.org/s/1620/magazine/interior.aspx?sid=1620&gid=1&pgid=1809.