Vanderbilt University is partnering with Fisk University, the Frist Art Museum and Millions of Conversations to host “Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice,” a trans-institutional series of virtual conversations and artistic collaborations focused on healing at a time of significant social unrest.
The initiative brings Carrie Mae Weems’ RESIST COVID TAKE 6! public art campaign to Nashville, with banners unveiled at Vanderbilt’s Fine Arts Gallery, the Central Library, Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery and the Frist Art Museum in September 2020. Weems’ series draws attention to the racial inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Per Social Studies 101, a Carrie Mae Weems project:
African American, Latino, and Native American communities have been disproportionately impacted by the deadly virus, COVID-19. With a public art campaign, we are promoting preventative measures and dispelling harmful falsehoods about COVID-19, while also paying homage to front-line and essential workers who have placed themselves in harm’s way. The artist-driven project is called RESIST COVID TAKE 6! The “TAKE 6” in the title refers to the recommended six feet of separation in social distancing.
The project, conceived by Carrie Mae Weems and Pierre Loving, brings together a diverse group of artists to project our voices in a way that underscores what’s possible and brings the general public into a conversation of heightened awareness of this problem. The goal is to better the communities in which we live.
“We’ve all been impacted by COVID-19. It’s an ecological health crisis of epic proportion—an international disaster. And yet we have indisputable evidence that people of color have been disproportionately impacted. The death tolls in these communities are staggering. This fact affords the nation an unprecedented opportunity to address the impact of social and economic inequality in real-time. Denial does not solve a problem.” —Carrie Mae Weems
Find more information about RESIST COVID TAKE SIX! here.