Sheila Pree Bright
#1960NOW
JANUARY 9 - MARCH 3, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22 - 5PM
Sheila Pree Bright is a fine-art photographer nationally known for the photographic series Young Americans, Plastic Bodies, and Suburbia. Described in the art world as a cultural anthropologist, Bright strives to engage her audience to think critically about contemporary culture.
“As I observe the state of the country, I feel art can be a form of activism to create awareness and bring shared communities together to critically look at ongoing social and political struggles across the nation. #1960Now is a participatory and interactive exhibition interpreting intergenerational views of activism through social engaged art. I would like to inspire dialogue that’s most needed in this critical moment in our country between races, genders and generations.”
Baltimore
drawing parallels
#1960Now is Bright's journey documenting the responses to police shooting in Atlanta, Ferguson, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Baton Rouge. She observed young social activists taking a stand against the same struggles their parents and grandparents endured during the era of Jim Crow. In 2013 while photographing under-recognized living leaders of the Civil Rights movement, she made a connection between today’s times and the climate of the 1960's that inspired this project. This series examines race, gender and generational divides to raise awareness of millennial perspectives on civil and human rights. Bright incorporates an Instagram campaign into #1960Now, within which she asks people in the streets what they will do to bring about change.
living leaders
1960 Who is a collection of photographic portraits wheat-pasted on community walls, depicting grassroot people who stood-up against bullies during the Civil Rights Movement. Youth leaders photographed include those who took a stand during the Atlanta Student Movement, Chicago Freedom Movement, Freedom Riders, The Children's Crusades and Poor People's Campaign. While honoring these leaders who are alive to witness today's climate, we are ushered to question the nature of change and our efforts as present individuals.
Dr. Roslyn Pope Atlanta Student Movement, Authored Appeal for Human Rights in 1960, Atlanta. GA
