FOR FREEDOMS

The first monograph of the hundreds of billboards by artist-led coalition For Freedoms, the largest public creative collaboration in American history

Founded in 2016 by Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Wyatt Gallery, and Michelle Woo, For Freedoms is an artist-led organization that uses art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. 

With the aim to infuse an anti-partisan, arts-based perspective into the political landscape, For Freedoms has collaborated with thousands of artists, activists, and scholars to create more than 500 evocative billboards that use art as a vehicle to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values. 

This comprehensive volume includes billboards created between 2016-2023 by over 400 established artists, including Derrick Adams, Gina Belafonte, Sanford Biggers, Paula Crown, Shepard Fairey, Theaster Gates, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Rashid Johnson, JR, Christine Sun Kim, Marilyn Minter, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Gordon Parks, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Maggie Rogers, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ai Weiwei, among many more. 

This new book celebrates how For Freedoms has transformed public commercial space into exhibition space and launched a creative collaboration of epic proportion. Published ahead of the 2024 American presidential election, it also underscores the For Freedoms mission to model how art can urge communities into greater action and participation. 

For Freedoms – a modern reimagining of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 Four Freedoms speech – was awarded the National Arts Award by Americans for the Arts (2022); honored with the Art for Justice Visionaries Award by the Bronx Museum of Art (2019); and received the Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform from the International Center for Photography (2017).

Hank Willis Thomas is a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist whose work focuses on identity, history, and popular culture.

Eric Gottesman is a Washington D.C.-based visual artist whose work addresses nationalism, migration, structural violence, and history.

Michelle Woo is Los Angeles-based art producer, art historian, and arts business consultant.

Wyatt Gallery is a Trinidad-based photographic artist who uses his work to spark empathy and curiosity.

taylor brock is a Los Angeles-based creative producer and curator.