MONTGOMERY, AL.- The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is now part of one of the largest creative collaborations in US history. The exhibition For Freedoms: Citizenship in Art is mounted in partnership with For Freedoms | The 50 State Initiative, and is intended to bring awareness to the value of active participation in our American Democracy. Both the exhibition at the MMFA and the 50 State Initiative finds inspiration in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address of 1941. In that speech, Roosevelt proposed four fundamental and essential rights that he believed people not only in our American democracy, but around the world should possess–the freedom of speech and freedom of worship, both protected in the First Amendment of our Constitution, along with freedom from want and freedom from fear. More than 75 years later, these ideals are often still contested. The artwork on view in For Freedoms: Citizenship in Art explores these issues. The public can experience the exhibition anytime through Sunday, November 18, 2018.

Many artists of the 20th and 21st centuries have tackled these rights in a variety of ways, perhaps most notably Norman Rockwell, who illustrated Roosevelt’s call to action in 1943. Drawn from the MMFA Permanent Collection, the art included in For Freedoms: Citizenship in Art continues to explore the “Four Freedoms” as identified by Roosevelt. These works depict various interpretations demonstrating how art possesses the power to address cultural issues, to enlighten, and to reflect on shared values provided by For Freedoms.

Since 2016, For Freedoms has produced special exhibitions, town hall meetings, billboards, and lawn sign installations to spur greater participation in civic life. This year, For Freedoms launched its 50 State Initiative, a new phase of programming to encourage broad participation and inspire conversation around November’s midterm elections.

Building off of the existing artistic infrastructure in the United States, For Freedoms has developed a network of over 300 artists and 200 institutional partners who will produce nationwide public art installations, exhibitions and local community dialogues in order to inject nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse. Centered around the vital work of artists, For Freedoms hopes that these exhibitions and related projects will model how arts institutions can become civic forums for action and discussion of values, place, and patriotism.