Taking place only weeks before the presidential election, the latest Creative Time Summit seeks to address how to transform civil society.
For the first time, Creative Time is inviting over 50 speakers to meet under the title “Occupy the Future” in Washington, DC, from October 14–16, 2016.
“The question of democracy is up for debate, and elections around the world are reflecting a certain disillusionment with the electoral process and its candidates,” Creative Time artistic director Nato Thompson said in a statement.
Billed as “the world’s largest international conference on art and social change,” the participants read like a who’s who from art and culture.
Speakers include a variety of figures from art, media, music, and politics. The event is headlined by Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, Serpentine Galleries co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist, Minor Threat and Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye, Guardian and Harper’s columnist Thomas Frank, artist Vaginal Davis, actor and designer Waris Ahluwalia, and artist Carrie Mae Weems. Janani Balasubramanian of DarkMatter will also be speaking.
Carrie Mae Weems, speaking at SVA in 2016: Image: Courtesy of School of Visual Arts.
The Creative Time Summit DC also features two special commissions by photographer Sheila Pree Bright and by DC’s Floating Lab Collective. For her photo series, Bright followed the Black Lives Matter movement and captured images of protests in Baton Rouge, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.
The Floating Lab Collective was commissioned to create the set design for the event. Recalling the Sistine Chapel, the set portrays the key figures and visual metaphors of social progress in Michelangelo’s legendary Renaissance painting.
The full list of speakers and participants includes: Alicia Garza, Anna Hutsol (FEMEN), Andrea Bowers, Carrie Mae Weems, Casa Taft 169 & La Maraña, Crew Peligrosos, E. Ethelbert Miller, Elissa Blount-Moorhead & Arthur Jafa (TNEG), Eva Barois De Caevel, Haneen Zoabi, Gelitin, Gluklya & Anna Bitkina, Hank Willis Thomas & Eric Gottesman, Hans Ulrich Obrist with Eileen Myles, Ian MacKaye, Janani Balasubramanian (Dark Matter), Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Khalid Albaih, Liberate Tate, Jonas Staal, Journal Rappé, Jun Yang, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, May Boeve, Melissa Mays, Newton Harrison, Nut Brother, Patricia Ariza, Pedro Reyes, Peter Svarzsbein, Radio SouriaLi, RAQs Media Collective, Ryan Hammond, Sheila Pree Bright, Sheldon Scott, Step Afrika, Terike Haapoja, Thomas Frank, Vaginal Davis, Voices of a People’s History of the United States, and Waris Ahluwahlia.