Page 8
October 10, 2018
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
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The banner “Vote and Continue to Dream” by acclaimed African American artist and Portland native Carrie Mae Weems is
raised outside the Portland Art Museum to promote participation in the democratic process and upcoming midterm election.
Vote
and
Dream
Museum shares message for civic engagement
This fall, the Portland Art Museum is
making a statement about the importance
of participating in the democratic process
and midterm election by raising a banner
by Carrie Mae Weems, an acclaimed Af-
rican American artist and Portland native.
Weems created the billboard “Vote and
Continue to Dream” using a photograph
she took at the January 2017 Women’s
March in Washington, D.C. The smiling
face on the banner belongs to the writer
and performance poet Sapphire. Weems
said her work was inspired by the great
feeling of hope and empowerment that the
nationwide women’s marches instilled in
her and so many others.
The Portland Art Museum is a partner in
“For Freedoms” a 50 state, artist-led platform
for civic engagement, discourse, and direct
action, by installing public art installations
and exhibitions in order to inject nuanced,
artistic thinking into public discourse.
The works of Freedoms’ co-founder
Hank Willis Thomas, whose art takes on is-
sues of race and politics, will be part of an
exhibit “Hank Willis Thomas: All Things
Being Equal,” coming to the museum in
the fall of 2019.