Perceptions of Me: a project by Penny Dodds Perceptions of Me is an exhibition that gives voice to teenagers who are talked and written about, but rarely listened to, raising our awareness of how Memphis teens perceive themselves. This is a collaborative project organized by Penny Dodds working with several innovative Memphis organizations that provide positive social and creative environments for youth in our community: BRIDGES, storybooth at Crosstown Arts and Caritas Village. (Learn more about Juvenile In Justice, the main exhibition, with which Perceptions of Me ties.) more here: www.memphis.edu/amum/perceptionsofme.php

Vist Consuming Passions ll on view at AMUM Monday-Saturday, 9am-5om now through October 6th! Consuming Passions II Collectors collect. All of the collectors participating in this exhibition have multiple collections; what is on display here is a fraction of their works. Most keep their collections in their homes, while some are fortunate to have acclimatized storage away from their living spaces. Some have gone to great lengths—and great expense—to create special museum-like atmospheres in their homes to accommodate their treasured objects. Serious collectors are experts in their subject areas, whether they are professionals in their respective collecting disciplines or extreme hobbyists. Each of the collectors represented here is totally conversant in the vernacular of his or her specialty, and each also has interests which extend beyond the focus of his or her particular collection. For many of them, the first collection begat a second collection, and the second collection begat a third collection. Again, collectors collect. From automobile art to baseball cards to cornhuskers, these collections are pursued by their owners and built into more than a passing stewardship; for most of our collectors they are truly passions—passions that have occupied their lifetimes and occupied significant mental, spiritual, and geographic spaces in their lives. For our collectors, acquiring these works is not a hobby; it is a lifestyle and a devotion that exceeds most other interests. These accumulations of objects each have communities attached to them through a network of other collectors, and those communities contribute, not surprisingly, to the increase of knowledge about these subjects. Collectors collect, but they also form the core of the expertise in their fields. Some provide footnotes to others’ works, while some write their own books on their subjects. Individuals who collect with passion and a quest for knowledge may hold the key to advancing scholarship about a focused area of history, culture, or science.

Updates here on our living online calendar: https://www.barrierfreeart.org/for-freedoms/ Provocative, vital, and socially engaged art can turn an art museum into a public forum for discussion around the four freedoms--freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom of fear. As part of the 50 State Initiative For Freedoms project, the Barrier Free Art Installation, a voter registration drive, a workshop and panel about activism and social practices of art, as well as a culminating Posada will turn AMUM into a public forum for the discussion of these four freedoms.

Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam Artists and Writers Protest, Inc. was an outgrowth of the Greenwich Village Peace Center and the War Resisters’ League. Started by a group of poets who recruited visual and performing artists, Artists and Writers Protest made a rousing debut on Sunday, January 29, 1967 with a full-page ad in the New York Times urging citizens to “End Your Silence.” It was signed by 600 national cultural leaders who each donated $10 to buy the ad. As New Yorkers woke up to their morning coffee that day, Artists and Writers Protest kicked off Angry Art Week with multitudes of actors, dancers, and musicians performing anti-war themed work on flat-bed trucks that circulated throughout the city. Angry Art Week concluded with stationary and ambulatory performances and exhibits, including a vast controversial show, “College of Indignation” at New York University. May Stephens, an artist member of Artists and Writers Protest wrote, “Everybody we knew wanted to be in on it. It became very exciting.” The portfolio Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Viet Nam, organized by artist Jack Sonenberg later in 1967, was a fundraiser for Artists and Writers Protest, Inc. The poets and artists contributed their work, and publishers and printers contributed time and materials. While many of the artists in the Artist and Writers Protest portfolio produced work in their signature styles, some ventured away from their known medium. It debuted in an exhibition at Associated American Artist Gallery in New York. Many of the artists who participated in this enterprise served in World War II and had seen and knew the horrors of war. In an instance of propaganda being used for the benefit of individuals rather than to promote war or to secure an economic plan, their art and their words reflect a desire for peace.