National Liberty Museum Announces Upcoming ‘Dreamlike’ Exhibition, Imagined Futures
Capping three years of exhibitions that pursue dialogues on the meaning and practice of liberty today, the National Liberty Museum (NLM) has announced its first exhibition for 2023, Imagined Futures, open to the public from January 20, 2023 – April 24, 2023. The juried exhibition features the work of ten diverse artists working in a variety of mediums to present global perspectives and dreamlike visions of society’s potential futures.
The exhibition artwork explores themes of ecology, community, liberation, and self-determination and interrogates society’s relationships with history, culture, and economy. Through different lenses, the exhibition examines powerful acts of historical reckoning and cultural healing, reinforcing the Museum’s vision of a world united in the work of preserving liberty and freedom for all.
“Here at the National Liberty Museum, we define liberty as action, and this exhibition is a way to open visitors’ eyes to what a world built in liberty for all can look like,” said Dr. Elizabeth Grant, Chief Program Officer of the National Liberty Museum. “We hope that through these works of art that explore potential futures and solutions to past and present concerns, our Museum guests can see how art has the power to drive conversation and positive change.”
Imagined Futures invited artists to reflect on the futures that could be, and the selected work showcases how translating varying pasts into visions of the future can empower generations to act in the present. The exhibition breaks away from real-world conventions and restraints, instead holding a mirror to contemporary societal issues and reflecting them into imagined realities. Ultimately, the exhibition calls on viewers to exercise civic action and champion a hopeful vision for a common future to bring imagined change into reality.
The artists for the Imagined Futures exhibition were selected by a panel of jurists, including Logan Cryer, Co-Curator of Icebox Project Space; Zindzi Harley, Assistant Curator at the African American Museum in Philadelphia; Raul Romero, Director for Special Projects at the University of the Arts; Teri Scott, Director of Marketing for the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania.
