January 20–April 24, 2022
Spanning Tuft University Art Galleries’ two campus locations in Medford and Boston, Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities explores the pivotal 1980s activist campaign, Artist Call Against US Intervention in Central America. The campaign, which sought to educate North Americans and protest US military interventions, included a vast array of political and artistic actions across nearly 30 cities that continue to reverberate in contemporary practice today. The exhibition provides an expansive examination of the campaign through the work of more than 100 artists and archival materials, including materials drawn from the personal archives of Lucy Lippard and Doug Ashford as well as from the Museum of Modern Art Library & Archives. Art for the Future will remain on view through April 24, 2022, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated, bilingual English-Spanish catalogue, co-published with Inventory Press, that features essays by artists and the exhibition curators as well as interviews with Artists Call organizers.
Artists Call was grounded in the political organizing of artists and activists such as Daniel Flores y Ascencio, Lucy Lippard, Doug Ashford, Leon Golub, and Coosje van Bruggen and grew through solidarity networks and community organizing. The conscious-raising effort resulted in exhibitions, performances, poetry readings, film screenings, concerts, and other cultural and educational events, with more than 1,000 artists participating in New York City and many more in cities across the U.S. and Canada. The exhibition Art for the Future offers a robust history of the campaign and captures its enduring influence on art and activism today, inviting audiences to consider the significance of the campaign within our current contexts. Major works by original campaign organizers and participants include those by artists Josely Carvalho, Jimmie Durham, Nancy Spero, Dona Ann McAdams, Ana Mendieta, Tim Rollins and KOS, Claes Oldenburg, Doug Ashford, Martha Rosler, Juan Sánchez, Sabra Moore, Gregory Sholette, Beatriz Cortez, Naeem Mohaiemen, Muriel Hasbun, Zarina, and many others.
Related exhibition programs:
Programs will be presented in English with Spanish Interpretation.
“Re-calling Artists Call,” keynote address by Lucy Lippard with Beatriz Cortez
Thurs, Jan 27, 6pm
Zoom program
Curator tour
February 13, 1pm
SMFA at Tufts, Boston
Faculty talk: Katrina Burgess
February 16, 12:15pm
Aidekman Arts Center, Medford
Decolonial Alliances panel
March 3, 6pm
Zoom Program
Curator tour
March 13, 1pm
Aidekman Arts Center, Medford
Arte Voz workshop: Muriel Hasbun
March 16, 6pm
Aidekman Arts Center, Medford
Latinx Solidarities in Boston: panel
April 15, 2pm
SMFA at Tufts, Boston
Closing artist roundtable
April 23, 2pm
Aidekman Arts Center, Medford
Each presentation across TUAG’s two campus locations in Boston and Medford offers cohesive and fully articulated examination of the campaign and its enduring impact. The exhibition is curated by Abigail Satinsky, Curator and Head of Public Engagement at TUAG, and Erina Duganne, Associate Professor of Art History at Texas State University, who spent five years researching, compiling materials, and engaging with artists to develop the presentation.
Support for Art for the Future, its catalogue, and related programming was provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), Tufts University AS&E Diversity Fund, and Tufts University Toupin-Bolwell Fund.
