CONTEMPORARY
ART EXHIBITION

As part of a rotating series of indoor and outdoor exhibits, ACT-SO proposes to work with a partner to organize a contemporary art exhibition in an effort to promote a deeper understanding of this history in modern times. Because of ACT-SO’s commitment to telling Brooklyn’s Abolitionism and Underground Railroad story, they see it as imperative to portray contemporary reactions to this newfound knowledge. In creating an art exhibition led by some of Brooklyn’s most promising up and coming artists, ACT-SO feels that this project will open doors to different views of the subject while using various forms of art, such as paint, sculpture, quilting, etc. The exhibition will serve as a contemporary interpretation of these historical friendships that will be mentioned throughout the educational material for this project. ACT-SO will identify and secure a partner for this program. The legwork will begin in Year 2, with the hopes of premiering the exhibition at Medgar Evers College in September 2009 in conjunction with the Annual Conference (see details below).

FREEDOM FILM FESTIVAL

ACT-SO proposes to create and implement an annual outdoor film festival that highlights films that showcase, interpret, and help promote understanding of the importance of the history of Abolitionism in Brooklyn and beyond. The first Film Fest will take place in Year 1 during September 2008 to coincide with Emancipation Day. ACT-SO will run four films over four weeks in The Friends of Freedom Amphitheatre. Films will be chosen with the help of ACT-SO staff and advisors to the project. ACT-SO feels that film is a valuable instructional material for the classroom as well, and plans to create a curriculum for teachers that can be used in conjunction with the films chosen for the festival. Just as we see our current school curriculum as literacy driven, recent research suggests the benefits of considering the possibility that the moving image and responses to it might form part of expected literate behavior. In this way, ACT-SO views the screen teaching the book in the very widest sense imaginable, feeding into our varied readings of mass cultural production, some of which will be print-rich, some of which will be more moving mage based