# Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory **Co-curated by Cheryl Finley • Deborah Willis** **On view from February 25, 2025, to June 30, 2025** **Opening Reception: February 25, 6:00pm - 8:00pm** ### About the Exhibit expand\_more "Freedom is something people take, and people are as **free as they want to be**.” ***—** James Baldwin* *Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory* presents contemporary art inspired by historical memory. The exhibition considers in comparative perspectives the historic and contemporary role photography and film have played in remembering legacies of slavery and its aftermath. It also examines the social lives of a diverse group of Americans within various places—on the land, at home, in photographic albums, at historic sites, and in public memory. Including nineteenth-century photographs made by Cincinnati studio photographer James Presley Ball and other photographs of Black Americans taken during the ongoing struggle for freedom, *Free as they want to be* offers a view of a people who expressed their desire to be free in early photographic portraits. This exhibition acknowledges artists’ ongoing efforts to explore the possibilities of freedom and their relationship to it. Their subject matter depicts the persistent quest to be “as free as they want to be” as well as their persistent drive to innovate aesthetic practices in photographic media. *Free as they want to be* addresses the making and uses of photographic archives, the narratives they tell and the parameters that define them as objects of study. Social and economic histories as well as experiences of race, class, gender and sexuality affect the construction, acquisition and maintenance of archives and their ability to influence knowledge production. This exhibition includes artists working in photography, video, projection, sculpture and mixed media installation. Their strength and determination are documented in their wide-ranging themes and aesthetic practices supported by a fierce engagement with archival research. The exhibition creates a framework in which to reimagine and reflect on historical events, as well as public and personal memory. This exhibition engages numerous educational themes including the legacy of racism, segregation and slavery in American culture, and the ability to understand and overcome injustice. It will inspire conversations about contemporary racial and ethnic diversity, migration and identity, the slave trade and the African diaspora. *Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory* is curated by Cheryl Finley, Ph.D. and Deborah Willis, Ph.D. and originated as a FotoFocus exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio on the occasion of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. The traveling exhibition is organized by Curatorial Exhibitions, Pasadena, California. ![Curatorial Exhibitions logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/coopergallery/files/ce-logo.jpg?itok=2pr5eI9a) ## In the News [### ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings ](https://en.postcart.com/libro/9788898391479) January 01, 2017 By Awam Amkpa (ed.) Published and distributed by Postcart Featuring contributions from Deborah Willis and Henry Louis Gates Jr. as well as work by Omar Victor Diop and Carrie Mae Weems, the accompanying catalog for ReSignifications (another travelling... ![i_id498_mw600_1x.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/i_id498_mw600_1x.jpg?h=d7758fba&itok=73Q_aDVa) [### The Black Civil War Soldier, A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship ](https://nyupress.org/9781479809004/the-black-civil-war-soldier/) January 26, 2021 By Deborah Willis Published and distributed by NYU Press Deborah Willis is one of the curators of “Free as they want to be” with video and archival prints from her series Meditations on Joan Baez’s Civil War featuring in the exhibition. This book explores... ![9781479809004.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/9781479809004.jpg?h=0a57e250&itok=kpsN41qN) [### Wendel A. White: Manifest | Thirteen Colonies ](https://www.radiusbooks.org/all-books/p/wendel-a-white-manifest-thirteen-colonies) July 02, 2024 Published by Peabody Museum Press, distributed by Radius Books Works from Manifest: Thirteen Colonies are featured in “Free as they want to be”. This book explores the entire photo series. ![666a9240.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/666a9240.jpg?itok=2KctdUOn) [### Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory ](https://www.damianibooks.com/en/products/6208780?srsltid=AfmBOopSVWKBVG7PJ5VBg8FvdyChBOOt0eKxNR_EXZgCo7LZyJ-Zk-aI) September 01, 2022 Official catalog for the travelling collection, edited with text by Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis Published and distributed by Damiani Books ![6208780_1.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/6208780_1.png?h=af511bb5&itok=I53IzBWl) [### Boston Globe, 'Photo shows at Harvard’s Cooper Gallery and BRIDGE Gallery meditate on the meaning of memory' ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/13/arts/harvard-cooper-gallery-bridge-gallery-photo-shows/) March 13, 2025 The past is very much present ![Album of tintypes of unidentified sitters, late 19th century.Melissa Blackall](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/web.jpg?itok=H54Vs2HA) Open all sections Close all sections ### Related Texts | Cooper Gallery Lit expand\_more [### Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory ](https://www.damianibooks.com/en/products/6208780?srsltid=AfmBOopSVWKBVG7PJ5VBg8FvdyChBOOt0eKxNR_EXZgCo7LZyJ-Zk-aI) September 01, 2022 Official catalog for the travelling collection, edited with text by Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis Published and distributed by Damiani Books ![6208780_1.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/6208780_1.png?h=af511bb5&itok=I53IzBWl) [### ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana Readings ](https://en.postcart.com/libro/9788898391479) January 01, 2017 By Awam Amkpa (ed.) Published and distributed by Postcart Featuring contributions from Deborah Willis and Henry Louis Gates Jr. as well as work by Omar Victor Diop and Carrie Mae Weems, the accompanying catalog for ReSignifications (another travelling... ![i_id498_mw600_1x.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/i_id498_mw600_1x.jpg?h=d7758fba&itok=73Q_aDVa) [### The Black Civil War Soldier, A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship ](https://nyupress.org/9781479809004/the-black-civil-war-soldier/) January 26, 2021 By Deborah Willis Published and distributed by NYU Press Deborah Willis is one of the curators of “Free as they want to be” with video and archival prints from her series Meditations on Joan Baez’s Civil War featuring in the exhibition. This book explores... ![9781479809004.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/9781479809004.jpg?h=0a57e250&itok=kpsN41qN) [### Wendel A. White: Manifest | Thirteen Colonies ](https://www.radiusbooks.org/all-books/p/wendel-a-white-manifest-thirteen-colonies) July 02, 2024 Published by Peabody Museum Press, distributed by Radius Books Works from Manifest: Thirteen Colonies are featured in “Free as they want to be”. This book explores the entire photo series. ![666a9240.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/666a9240.jpg?itok=2KctdUOn) [Exhibition Website](https://curatorial.com/current-exhibitions/free-as-they-want-to-be) [Exhibition Checklist](https://curatorial.com/s/FreeAsTheyWantToBe_Checklist_.pdf) [Exhibition Catalog](https://www.artbook.com/9788862087803.html)