past exhibition
We Are For Freedoms
October 26, 2019–March 1, 2020
For Freedoms is an artist-led platform for civic engagement, discourse, and action that seeks to highlight America’s diversity through anti-partisan artistic interventions. We Are For Freedoms comprises a highly participatory exhibition, public art installed in the city of Manchester, and a series of town hall discussions. Coinciding with the lead-up to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary, these activities show how art can spur discussions about values, place, and patriotism.
Founded in 2016 by artists Eric Gottesman (a New Hampshire native) and Hank Willis Thomas, For Freedoms is inspired by Norman Rockwell’s 1943 paintings of the four universal freedoms articulated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 – freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. For Freedoms follows a long artistic tradition of using mass communication to stimulate political discourse. They believe that art plays an important role in moving our society towards a more representative and transparent government, using art to show that citizenship is deepened by participation.
As part of We Are For Freedoms, the Currier Museum is organizing a series of town hall discussions inspired by the Four Freedoms on November 7, December 8, January 20, and February 6. Free and open to all, these conversations allow for a more active, collaborative, and inclusive experience.
During the exhibition, the museum invites others to host their own For Freedoms activations, expanding creative and critical civic dialogues throughout New Hampshire. Click here for more information on how you can be involved.
Click here for the handout from Town Hall Immigration and Integration: What is Our Capacity?
Click here for the handout from Town Hall Compassion vs Punishment: Can Addiction be Destigmatized?
Click here for the handout from Town Hall Accessibility in the Arts: Is Expression Really Free to All?
Click here for the handout from Town Hall Indigenous Spirituality: An Abenaki Perspective on Freedom of Worship
Exhibition sponsor: The Bookery
Media sponsor: iHEARTmedia
Town Hall discussions are made possible with support from New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org.
Support by:
For Freedoms (Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur in collaboration with Eric Gottesman and Wyatt Gallery of For Freedoms)
American, active 2016–
Freedom from Fear, from Four Freedoms, 2018
archival pigment print, 52 1/2 x 42 in. (133 x 107 cm)
Henry Melville Fuller Fund, 2018.30.3
For Freedoms (Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur in collaboration with Eric Gottesman and Wyatt Gallery of For Freedoms)
American, active 2016–
Freedom of Worship, from Four Freedoms, 2018
archival pigment print, 52 1/2 x 42 in. (133 x 107 cm)
Henry Melville Fuller Fund, 2018.30.3
For Freedoms (Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur in collaboration with Eric Gottesman and Wyatt Gallery of For Freedoms)
American, active 2016–
Freedom of Speech, from Four Freedoms, 2018
archival pigment print, 52 1/2 x 42 in. (133 x 107 cm)
Henry Melville Fuller Fund, 2018.30.3
upcoming exhibitions
past exhibitions
Archived material on past exhibitions can be explored further here, and recent past exhibition catalogues are available through the museum shop.
artist in residence
Our Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program invites artists to live and work at the museum. While in residence, artists consider the collection and community, and refresh our perspectives on the role of the museum. The program is central to the Currier Museum’s mission of connecting our audiences with art and creative thinking, whether of the past or the future. We hope to learn from our visiting artists – and be surprised by their perspectives.
Artists working in all media participate in the AIR program, which has three main components: 1) an open call to support emerging artists making socially engaged art; 2) an invitational through which artists are selected to develop special projects, commissions, or exhibitions; and 3) artist-led, community-centered public art projects in the city of Nashua, NH.
Open Call for Artist in Residence Applications
Our annual open call is currently live from October 1 – December 1, 2022. Artists who share the museum’s goal of positively impacting communities through the transformative power of art are encouraged to apply to this residency.