Hank Willis Thomas Visits MICA as Part of Civic Engagement Programming

Hank Willis Thomas with MICA Interdisciplinary Sculpture students during critique

MICA is partnering with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and For Freedoms to deliver a robust line-up of civic engagement programming on campus and around Baltimore City this fall. Founded by renowned conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, a photographer, writer and educator, the For Freedoms Project is a national platform for greater participation in the arts and in civil society.

A Creative Citizenship Fellow at MICA, Hank Willis Thomas visited the College in October for a three-day engagement that consisted of an invitation-only Town Hall and public Artist Talk co-sponsored and co-organized with the BMA. He also visited several classrooms and began working with the Curatorial Practice graduate students to develop exhibitions related to the For Freedoms initiative that will take place from Janurary - March 2019

Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—the For Freedoms Project seeks to use art to deepen public discussions of civic issues and core values, and to clarify that citizenship in American society is defined by participation, not by ideology.

Scenes from Hank Willis Thomas's classroom visits at MICA this October

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