2017 Infinity Award: Online Platform and New Media — For Freedoms

For Freedoms, co-founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, is the first artist-run Super PAC using art to inspire deeper political engagement for citizens who want to have a greater impact on the American political landscape. Thomas is a photo-conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture who has exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work can be found in numerous public collections including The Museum of Modern Art New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The High Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Thomas’ co-founder Gottesman photographs, writes, makes videos, teaches, and uses art as a vehicle to engage people in critical conversations about the social structures that surround them and him.  Gottesman is currently a Visiting Associate Professor in Film, Photography, and Video at Hampshire College, a Visiting Professor at Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts, and a Mentor in the Arab Documentary Photography Project. His work is in various collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The For Freedoms team is rounded out by photographer Wyatt Gallery; nonprofit arts organization strategic planning and development consultant Dena Muller; art historian and business consultant Michelle Woo; and Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels, a Director at the Jack Shainman Gallery.