In One Month, For Freedoms Will Stage the Largest Congress of Creatives in America’s History. Will You Join Us?

Nearly 250 years ago, representatives of the American colonies
met in two Continental Congresses. At the Second Congress they
signed a Declaration of Independence that put forth a radical and
profoundly imaginative statement of values and ideals.

The United States now finds itself at a moment in which creative
thinking and revolutionary imagination are desperately needed.

One month from now, in Los Angeles, California, a city and state
with a rich history of ambitious social and creative movements, we
will convene perhaps the largest gathering of creative minds in
American history. This meeting of artists, academic, cultural
institutions, and social justice advocates will take place February
28 to March 1. A first-of-its-kind event, it will be convened by
For Freedoms, an anti-partisan platform to
promote civic engagement, civil discourse, and direct action
through art.

Since For Freedoms’s founding in 2016, we have worked to lead
through culture, placing the arts at the forefront of a national
conversation about how to move forward as a unified society. To
revisit prior national definitions of liberty, we took inspiration
from president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech, in which he
proclaimed that America’s identity was centered on freedom of
speech and freedom of worship as well as freedom from want and
freedom from fear.

Norman Rockwell created some of his most acclaimed works to
illustrate those four freedoms. We restaged those artworks, but
broadened the conversation from his middle-class, white,
Anglo-Saxon context, inviting people of all races and religions to
pose for our 21st-century reimaginings of those scenes. What was
created was a vital illustration of a multi-cultural, multi-faith,
multi-racial vision for America and the world.

One of the principles driving For Freedoms is at the heart of
this question: How can artists and other storytellers and creative
people come together to move beyond division and uplift humankind?
How can we foster non-binary thinking, based on the philosophy that
when we choose a side, someone is always going to lose? What does a
future look like where no one wins or loses but everyone plays?

The For Freedoms Congress (FFCon) is where
we start.

The idea for the Congress was seeded by our previous project,
the “50 State Initiative,” the largest
creative collaboration in American history. Working with 800
artists and 250 museums, arts institutions, and universities across
the country, we supported billboards, exhibitions, and arts-led
townhall meetings in every state and in Washington, D.C., and
Puerto Rico that aimed to inject nuanced thinking into public
discourse in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections.

What we learned was that the biggest asset that resulted from
the project was the network of creative people who believed in
their capacity to change the world through culture. We heard from
these people that they wanted to meet face to face. The Congress is
the first attempt to make that wish a reality.

We believe in the power of community and in the endless
possibilities of working together to create the future we want to
see. At this moment of collective national anxiety, we hope the
sight of creative and empathetic people coming together will be a
balm for the soul.

But we are aiming higher than that as well.

We want this gathering to supercharge this nation’s cultural
infrastructure. We think that by working together, we can create a
set of digital tools and plans for each institution to take back to
their communities and begin to share with their fellow citizens.
The idea is to spread engagement and purpose alongside these
trusted and respected institutions.

Modeled on prior convenings in art and American politics,
programming will include teaching, game-playing, co-creation, and
reflection, and will be rooted in values such as community,
transparency, and equity. A series of focused, artist-led planning
sessions will result in an “artist’s platform for civic action” in
2020 and will articulate values shared within the greater
community. There will also be four public townhall sessions in
which participants explore Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and what they
mean today.

Events, all of which will be minimal- to zero-waste, will be
hosted by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture,
the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the California
African-American Museum, the Japanese American National Museum, and
the Crenshaw Dairy Mart.

We believe culture leads to change. But not without all of us
playing a role to drive that change. It’s no mistake that this
Congress takes place in an election year, in a nation as bitterly
divided as it has been in decades. The conventions of the major
political parties have become driven by ratings and stagecraft.
Here it may be worth remembering that in his farewell address,
George Washington warned against the “baneful effects of the spirit
of party generally.”

In contrast, we plan to have artists lead genuine and candid
discussions. The focus will be on beginning to build a new and
different political future in an event that opens participants’
hearts and minds to deeper truths about themselves in a spirit of
solidarity. As artists and other creatives, we can imagine no
higher mission.

The post In One Month, For Freedoms Will Stage the Largest
Congress of Creatives in America’s History. Will You Join Us?
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