By The People Festival Features Art and Dialogue June 15-23

April 25, 2019

Media only: Janice L. Kaplan

By The People Festival Features Art and Dialogue June 15-23

Free Activities Celebrate Life, Liberty, Happiness

WASHINGTON, D.C. – By The People, Washington, D.C.’s largest international arts and civic dialogue festival, returns for its second year June 15-23 with nine days of free events for all ages in every quadrant; interactive art installations; curated artist talks and a day of dialogues set 20 years in the future; art in unexpected places; a sale of work by local artists; and, together with the Smithsonian, a June 22 “Solstice Saturday” celebration with free programs and performances at Smithsonian museums, which will be open until midnight.

Described as “Art Basel with a conscience” and “the next SXSW,” the entirely free festival focuses on our country’s founding principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – “all with the goal of connecting people from diverse backgrounds, building bridges across the cultural divide and promoting open and civil discourse,” said Kate Goodall, CEO of festival organizer Halcyon – a nonprofit that supports civic-minded artists and social entrepreneurs. Registration is encouraged. Visit bythepeople.org.

A full-on arts takeover of Washington, By The People includes:

• Installations and programs at four official hubs: the Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building (900 Jefferson Drive S.W.), Union Market (1309 5th Street N.E.), CityCenterDC (10th and H streets N.W.) and a floating art installation based primarily on the Southeast D.C. waterways. Additional satellite locations (as of April 25) include the Anacostia Arts Center, DC Arts Center, Gallery 102, Greater Reston Arts Center, IA&A at Hillyer, Prince George’s African American Museum & Cultural Center, VisArts and Washington Studio School.
• New this year: A barge that will move up and down D.C.’s Potomac and Anacostia rivers featuring a floating art installation by For Freedoms co-founder Hank Willis Thomas titled “THEY ARE US, US IS THEM.” For Freedoms is dedicated to creative civic engagement, discourse and direct action inspired by artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. Over the course of the festival, the barge will visit Georgetown, Capitol Riverfront and Anacostia.
• At the Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building: site-specific installations by Jonathan Rosen, Victor Ekpuk, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Rania Hassan and Stevie Famulari. Best known for interactive works that examine selfie culture, Rosen’s “Walking on Clouds” reminds visitors of their forgotten dreams. Participants will walk through a dense fog as they make their way to Rosen’s interactive mirrors, where they will be invited to take photos of their reflections while random words flash across the surface. For instance, one mirror will feature the phrase “I could be…” followed by a thousand randomized responses (such as “I could be king,” “I could be loved,” “I could be seen,” “I could be powerful.”) Much like the experience of shaking a Magic 8-Ball, participants won’t learn the answer until after they snap a photo on their smart phones. Ekpuk, a Nigerian-American artist who lives in Washington, D.C., is known for his glyph-like paintings and drawings that are inspired by the aesthetic concepts of indigenous African writing systems and graphic symbols from diverse cultures. His “Eye See You” comments on the age of surveillance in which we are constantly watching others or being watched. Jarvis’ sculpture, “Adaptation,” focuses on our country’s past, present and future history as well as its connection to the natural world. Inspired also by the history and architecture of the Arts + Industries’ Building, Jackson’s interactive work will be created from steel, aluminum, painted forms, script, stones and artifacts. D.C.-based Rania Hassan, who was selected for the festival through Halcyon’s open call for artists, combines knitting and painting to weave sculptural stories about our connections to time, place and circumstance. Stevie Famulari was also selected through the open call.
• At Union Market’s brand new AutoShop space: Kahlil Joseph’s piece “BLK NWS” will have its East Coast debut, coming directly to D.C. from the Venice Biennale. BLK NWS is a two-channel media network that focuses on African-American life, using existing footage, filmed news desk segments, still images and music. Much like an actual news broadcast, it is constantly being updated. In addition to Union Market, the work will be installed in several other D.C. locations. An L.A.-based artist and filmmaker best known for his large-scale video installations, Joseph has collaborated with Beyoncé (on “Lemonade”), Kendrick Lamar and the late Noah Davis.
• At the Park at CityCenter DC: Janet Echelman’s enormous, sky-high net sculpture, titled “1.78,” is a beautiful work of braided fiber and projected light that will shift from being “an object you look at into an experience to get lost in.”  
• The art installations are curated by Jessica Stafford Davis, founder of The Agora Culture and Martha Vineyard’s Art on the Vine.
• Art installations by Halcyon Arts Lab fellows (Kelli Rae Adams, Kokayi, Jessica Mehta, Tariq O’Meally, Joao Pina, Ada Pinkston, Mengxi “Althea” Rao and Naoko Wowsugi) that touch on such timely themes as #MeToo, Confederate monuments and student debt.
• Talks by featured artists and a day of dialogues set in the year 2039, produced in partnership with WeDC House.
• Augmented reality art installations in partnership with ARTECHOUSE.
• Pop-up performances throughout the city at official and satellite sites.
• A sale of work by local artists curated by Nina O’Neil of Monochrome Collective. Ranging in price from $500 to $10,000, the sale offers collectors a way to support D.C.’s growing art ecosystem.
• A courtesy shuttle that will transport festival attendees between festival hubs on the weekends.

Partners and Sponsors

As of April 25, partners and sponsors include: CityCenterDC; D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED); Destination DC; Eaton Workshop; EDENS; DowntownDC, Events DC; GEICO; Georgetown BID; Goldman Sachs; Maven; The Menkiti Group; S&R Foundation; Sage Communications; Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building; Smithsonian Institution; The Stafford Foundation; Bank of America|Bank of America Private Bank; Union Market and WDCEP.

Volunteers

By The People is grateful to the many volunteers who helped make last year’s event a success. To volunteer, sign up at bythepeople.org/volunteer.

About Halcyon

Halcyon is a new kind of nonprofit organization that lifts up innovators and creators, giving them the tools and opportunities they need to bring their ideas to life. Signature programs include three residential fellowships: Halcyon Incubator, Incubator Intensives and Halcyon Arts Lab; By The People arts and dialogue festival; and Halcyon Awards, which recognize extraordinary accomplishment in such areas as art, social enterprise and policy. Since its founding, Halcyon has built programming around the core tenets of space, community and access, continuously evolving to identify and provide a haven for big dreamers and risk-takers the world over. www.halcyonhouse.org

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