The Art of Saving Democracy
As we mark our nation’s 250th anniversary amid renewed attacks on our American ideals and freedoms, BAM celebrate the role of artists in our democracy and the power of everyday people to shape the future. Join a special evening featuring Vincent Valdez, Debbie Millman, Kathleen Turner, and more!
Artist Vincent Valdez creates provocative works that confront the erasures in American history, revealing how those omissions still shape our present. He speaks with urgency about the dangers of forgetting our past, echoing Gore Vidal’s notion of the “United States of Amnesia,” and shows how artists can make the reality of American life on the margins impossible to ignore.
He will be in conversation with Debbie Millman, a cultural commentator, illustrator, author, professor at the School of Visual Arts, and the host of the popular podcast Design Matters.
Screen icon Kathleen Turner, alongside artist Deborah Kass and other special guests, will perform a dramatic reading of select constitutional amendments that feel especially vulnerable in this moment.
This is the premiere launch event for The Art of Saving Democracy: An Action Kit for Making Change, an arts-infused civic renewal initiative by People For the American Way.
Combining art and action, The Art of Saving Democracy “inspires and empowers in equal measure,” says Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who contributed to the foreword. Alongside contributions from Valdez and Millman, it includes work by Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Carrie Mae Weems, Shepard Fairey, Deborah Kass, Beverly McIver, Cleon Peterson, and more. The action kit pairs these art pieces with practical advice, covering how to contact elected officials, place op-eds, protest safely, and organize with others.
About People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. For more than four decades, we have been dedicated to making the promise of American ideals real for everyone and have worked toward a vision of a vibrant America where basic rights and freedoms are upheld for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. Learn more at peoplefor.org.