FOR FREEDOMS CONGRESS

For Freedoms—a national platform and collective for creative citizenship and discourse founded by visual artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman—staged its first ever convening, the For Freedoms Congress (FFCon). A year after launching the 50 State Initiative, the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history, FFCON took place from February 28 to March 1, 2020 to build a collective artists’ platform for public action and to create plans to supercharge civic engagement in their communities leading up to 2020’s Presidential Election. 

“Delegates” from around the country including artists and arts activities from all 50 States plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia gathered in downtown Los Angeles. Over 500 participants and nearly 80 artists participated. THE OFFICE was engaged by For Freedoms to produce the convening and manage all the logistics for the conference.

With similar goals as THE OFFICE, For Freedoms believes in—and advocates for—creativity as a civic right, participation as a civic duty, and deeper discourse as a catalyst of civic change. And it welcomes all.  These delegate participants included artistic collaborators, institutional and organizational partners and funders. For five days nearly 70 workshops, panel discussions, film screenings, meditations, actions, art installations and performances were programmed to fortify, maintain, and activate the civic infrastructure of creativity. In addition,  a series of four Town Halls and a day of programming at Hammer museum were opened to the public and presented free of charge. As part of a platform of sustainability, no paper schedules were distributed (an app was launched) and plastic water bottles were banned from the Congress. 

Partnerships with Earth Angel, a sustainability program and Homegirl, a local caterer contributed to the ecology and local business engagement.Partner institutions included the Geffen Warehouse at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Japanese American National Museum, Hammer Museum, Crenshaw Dairy Mart, Sankofa, Los Angeles County Arts and the California African American Museum. FFCon built upon Los Angeles’ historic role as the birthplace and driver of important artistic-lead cultural movements over the decades. The Congress brought together the massive For Freedoms network to share tools and ideas for community-based civic engagement through the arts. A series of artist-led planning sessions, and opportunities for members of the For Freedoms community to meet each other strengthened the role artists have in shaping culture in this important election year.

[Banner photo: Melissa Monsey]