Baton Rouge Gallery – center for contemporary art (“BRG”), Southern University, and The West Baton Rouge Museum are proud to announce they are partnering on a limited-run multi-site exhibition featuring works from some of the biggest names in American art.
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory – curated by Deborah Willis, Ph.D. and Cheryl Finley, Ph.D. – is a presentation of contemporary art inspired by historical memory that considers the historic and contemporary role photography and film have played in remembering legacies of slavery. It also examines the social lives of a diverse group of Americans within various places — on the land, at home, in photographic albums, at historic sites, and in public memory.
This traveling exhibition features works from some of America’s most celebrated contemporary artists, including Bisa Butler, Carrie Mae Weems, Dawoud Bey, Hank Willis Thomas, Radcliffe Bailey, and many others. A number of themes including migration, identity, and the African diaspora are explored throughout the works. The exhibition originated at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has since travelled across the United States before coming to Louisiana’s capital city.
Work on view: Untitled #5 (Tree Trunk, Picket Fence, and House), 2017