FOR FREEDOMS

Artists transform public space.

Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 proclamation of four basic American freedoms (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from war, freedom from fear) and Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms paintings, the For Freedoms organization, an artist-led coalition, was created in 2016 by Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Wyatt Gallery, and Michelle Woo, aiming to integrate artists’ voices into the political conversation. “What is the role of art in a democracy?” they asked, a question that seemed newly urgent after the 2016 election. Along with exhibitions and artist-led town hall meetings, the group engaged artists to create hundreds of billboards all across the country that, the artists hoped, would inspire in viewers a way to “better understand themselves, the world, and the artist’s experience.” Color photographs of billboards mounted between 2016 and 2023, along with textual commentary, convey hope, despair, and a call to activism—including the powerful act of voting. “Not voting is actually voting,” one billboard, erected in Flint, Michigan, warns. “Grab em by the Ballots” is the message on another. Many billboards respond to hot-button issues, including reproductive rights, climate change, racism, violence against Asians, indigenous rights, antisemitism, police brutality, gun violence, health care, and immigration: “Every Refugee Boat Is a Mayflower” announces one billboard in Maine. The words “Thoughts” and “Prayers” are superimposed on images of guns on a billboard in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “Your Body Your Business” appears in St. Louis, Missouri. “Think Science,” advises a billboard in Kentucky. The 2020 Awakening campaign was “a culmination of communal artistry, ideation, and visions for a radical future” that proposed four new freedoms: healing, awakening, justice, and listening. One billboard puts it simply: “Cultivate Care.”

Fervent messages for the nation’s future.