Cause Collective: In Search of the Truth Billboard Part of For Freedoms 50 State Initiative

For Immediate Release: August 23, 2018
Contact: Clay Russell, Director of Communications & Operations
310.428.5671 | crussell@PSA-MS.org | www.PSA-MS.org

Cause Collective: In Search of the Truth Billboard
Part of For Freedoms 50 State Initiative

As a part of the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, Pike School of Art – Mississippi will host an electronic billboard created by Cause Collective (www.causecollective.com), a team of artists, designers and ethnographers creating innovative art in the public realm, in conjunction with our presentation their project,  In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth), on September 5, 2018. From August 29 to September 5, 2018, the electronic billboard at 223 E. Presley Blvd. in McComb, Mississippi will read, “Everyone has their version of The Truth. What is yours?” The billboard will direct viewers to Cause Collective’s website, www.InSearchOfTheTruth.net, where they will see videos from participants of the project from around the world.

As a part of a tour through Mississippi and Alabama, In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth) features a 15-foot high speech bubble. Inside the booth participants are invited to make a two-minute-long video finishing the open-ended sentence “The Truth is…” The resulting videos will be compiled, edited, and accessible as a documentary film at truthbooth.com and screened at a later date at PSA-MS in McComb. The tour has been generously supported by the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Alabama Council on the Arts and The Educational Foundation of the Arts (theefa.org).

For Freedoms outdoor activations invite artists to use the tools of art and advertising to encourage civic engagement. For Freedoms believes that if artists’ voices replace advertising across the country, public discourse will become more nuanced.

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.

About For Freedoms

For Freedoms started in 2016 as a platform for civic engagement, discourse, and direct action for artists in the United States. Inspired by Norman Rockwell’s 1943 paintings of the four universal freedoms articulated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms seeks to use art to deepen public discussions of civic issues and core values, and to clarify that citizenship in American society is deepened by participation, not by ideology. For Freedoms is part of a rich history of artists employing means of mass communication to provoke political discourse. For Freedoms believes art, and artists, play an important role in galvanizing our society towards a more representative and transparent government.

About CAUSE COLLECTIVE

The CAUSE COLLECTIVE’s projects explore and enliven public spaces by creating a dynamic conversation between issues, sites and the public audience. By exploring ideas that affect and shape society, they seek to add the “public” back into public space and art.

This project was supported by ArtsRevive, Selma, Alabama

Pike School of Art - Mississippi is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Pike School of Art - Mississippi must be made payable to “Pike School of Art - Mississippi” and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. TAX ID #47-3838208






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