Picture a Free World Art Show
Picturing a Free World is an act of imagination in itself, and it will take creativity for us to get there. Art will help us imagine, strategize, and continue our movements for freedom. Over 60 artists from prison and 30 artists in solidarity have created work from cross stitch,to paintings to sculpture to photographs, in conversation with the question: What is a free world for you, and for others?
Show runs:
July 5-July 29th
Concept Art Gallery
1031 S. Braddock Ave in Regent Square
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday
10 – 4pm
Come visit the show – consider scheduling a video visit with your incarcerated loved one and take them on a tour. Wifi connections available if you want to bring a laptop or just zoom from your phone.
Access Notes: Both Concept Art Gallery and the Carnegie Museum of Art are wheel chair accessible. The July 22 panel will have live captioning on the zoom. If you would like ASL for any person events please email: letsgetfreepa@gmail.com one week before the event.
Access details continue to unfold. Will be updated regularly here.
Friday July 7
Opening and Fundraising Art Auction Kick Off
July 7, 2023 4-9
Concept Art Gallery, 1031 S. Braddock Ave in Regent Square
Auction will kick off on July 7th both in person and online. There will also be a Grab & Go art sale, Quilt Raffle and food & beverages. The auction will run until 24th.
Saturday July 8
Performance by Amachi Pittsburgh Ambassadors
July 8 ,2023 Performance by Amachi at 2pm
Visit the gallery from 10 – 4pm
Visit the art show and witness performance by the Amachi Ambassadors.
Concept Art Gallery, 1031 S. Braddock Ave in Regent Square
“We live in a society that has been locked into a false sense of inevitability. It’s time to look hard at how this system came to be, who profits, how it functions, and why – and it’s time to imagine what it would look like to see justice done without relying on punishment and the barbarity of carceral systems. As writer and educator Erica Meiners suggests: “Liberation under oppression is unthinkable by design.” It’s time for a jailbreak of the imagination in order to make the impossible possible.” – Mariame Kaba
Please join The Black Unicorn Library Project on Thursday, July 20th at 6pm to connect for a virtual book discussion to delve into “We Do This ‘ Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice” by Mariame Kaba.
Whether you’ve already started reading or want to get into this book and haven’t had the time – we’d love to have you. This is a non-traditional book club space and you don’t have to have it all read by the time we meet. We’ll explore passages together, share supplementary media and materials related to abolition and spend time discussing some of the powerful offerings shared in this book. Let us know if you need a copy! Please RSVP for zoom link.
Free Event series with Quiltivist Dorothy Burge
the weekend of July 21 – 23
Quiltivism with Dorothy Burge
July 21 Friday
5 – 7:30
Concept Art Gallery
Gallery opens at 5 – presentation starts at 6:30 Dorothy Burge presents an overview and slideshow of her quiltivism work in Chicago including the campaign against police torture AT Concept Gallery 1031 S. Braddock Ave in Regent Square
Art, Imagination and Liberation: A conversation with Mariame Kaba, Nicole Fleetwood, Dorothy Burge.
July 22, Saturday 2-3:30pm
In person at CMOA and Online. Register to Get The Zoom LInk
Access Notes: Live Captioning on the Zoom, Wheel Chair Accessible.
Please join us for a conversation that will invite our imagination to create and nurture freedom. Mariame Kaba, Nicole Fleetwood, Dorothy Burge, each engage creative processes, artists and artworks as a form of resistance of carceral logic and the everyday harms and violence of the system it enables while also creating and actualizing visions of abolition and how we collectively get there.
This conversation is co-presented by Let’s Get Free, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Black Unicorn Library on occasion of Let’s Get Free’s 6th art exhibition, Picture a Free World.
This will be in person & online. In person location is Carnegie Museum of Art. Dorothy Burge will be in person and Mariame and Nicole will be zooming in. Please register for online participation. Registration Link.
Hands On Art Making w/ Dorothy Burge
July 23, Sunday 2-5pm
Carnegie Museum of Art
Please join artist Dorothy Burge and organizers from Let’s Get Free for a collective hands-on quilt making workshop. Together, we will create fabric messages for people serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. Drop in anytime between 2 and 5pm to design your square, you may need at least an hour to make your message. All ages are invited to participate and no experience is necessary. Dorothy Burge is a fabric and multimedia artist and community activist – a Quiltivist – who is inspired by history and current issues of social justice.
Saturday July 29th – Art Pick UP
Last day of Show 10 – 4pm
Auction winners can come in anytime and pick their art up. If this day doesn’t work we can schedule other times. Auction Contact: auctionlgf@gmail.com