Updated: Dec 13, 2018
Design: Sonia Yoon Essay by Steven L. Bridges, associate curator at Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, and Dr. Sameena Mulla, Marquette University Release Date: August 17, 2018
This catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition Kirsten Leenaars: (Re)Housing the American Dream, commissioned by the Haggerty Museum of Art (Milwaukee, WI).
Link to project website: https://rehousingtheamericandream.wordpress.com
Updated: Dec 13, 2018
(Re)Housing the American Dream at York College Galleries, York (PA), September 6 –October 12, 2018. The exhibition shows the collection of drawings, video and text work that make up (Re)Housing the American Dream; a cumulative documentary project (2015-ongoing) that explores the role of film as political action. This experimental multi-year documentary project follows a group of American and refugee youths in Milwaukee, growing up in the time of Trump. Through the collective making of video and text based work the construct of the American Dream is explored. The production period is structured as an annual summer camp in which the works are developed through collaborative processes with the participants. The produced work reflects on current socio-political issues, their lived experiences, individual perspectives and their collective imagination. The annual works cumulatively inform each other and tell the story of a resilient, diverse, opinioned group of youngsters living in divisive times. Project website: https://rehousingtheamericandream.wordpress.com/
Artist Lecture: Wednesday October 10, 5:30 pm Demeester Recital Hall, 441 Country Club Rd, York College York, Pennsylvania
Exhibition: Kirsten Leenaars: (Re)Housing the American Dream September 6 – October 12, 2018, York College Galleries Wolf Hall, 441 Country Club Rd Hours: Mon., Tue., Fri.: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Wed., Thu. 9 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. https://yorkcollegegalleries.com/future-exhibitions/
(Re)Housing the American Dream: Freedom Principles. Link to video: https://vimeo.com/290212255
Invitation opening reception (Re)Housing the American Dream: Freedom Principles at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee. This exhibition is an overview of all the work produced during this 3-year performative documentary project, including the new 3 channel video installation, produced this summer.
Opening Reception (Re)Housing the American Dream: Freedom Principles Thursday Sept 20th from 5 – 8 pm. Gallery Talk 6 pm: Artist Kirsten Leenaars in conversation with filmmaker Jesse McLean. Haggerty Museum of Art, at Marquette University 530 N 13th St, Milwaukee
Exhibition Rehousing the American Dream: Freedom Principles runs: August 17, 2018 – January 17, 2019 at the Haggerty Museum of Art Link to show: http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/kirsten-leenaars3.php Project website: https://rehousingtheamericandream.wordpress.com/ (Re)Housing the American Dream is a cumulative performative documentary project (2015-ongoing) that explores the role of film as political action. This experimental multi-year documentary project follows a group of American and refugee youths, growing up in the time of Trump, through the collective making of performative video and text based work exploring the construct of the American Dream. The production period is structured as an annual summer camp in which the works are developed through collaborative processes with the participants. The produced work reflects on current socio-political issues, their lived experiences, individual perspectives and their collective imagination. The annual works cumulatively inform each other and tell the story of a resilient, diverse, opinioned group of youngsters living in divisive times.
(Re)Housing the American Dream: Freedom Principles explores the historical, cultural and personal notions of freedom through performative actions that have been developed collectively during a one-week intensive film production. The group spent a significant amount of their time exploring the roots to various freedom struggles in Milwaukee, specifically looking to the speech and actions of the youth chapter of the NAACP, who were instrumental in leading a number of civil rights protests in the city in the 1960s. Together, the artist and participants moved throughout the city, visiting the different historical sites where important civil rights actions took place. Marking, building, commemorating, (re)claiming, imagining, occupying, embodying, framing, performing, transmitting many facetted ways freedom can take form. Link to video: https://vimeo.com/290212255
Director/Editor: Kirsten Leenaars; Assistant Director: Lindsey Barlag-Thornton; Camera: Ellie Hall and Orlando Pinder; Sound: Jimmy Schauss; Production Assistants: Li Ming Hu and Zachary Hutchinson; Composer: Paul Deuth Performers: Isa Ali Ahmad, Nur Ali Ahmad, Yusof Ali Ahmad, Rokimah Ali Ahmad, Alanis Aranda-Salgado, Javon Amin Barker, Elsa Grace Berner, Paw Htoo Boe, Iman Fatmi, Nina Jackson, Vittoria Patricia Lucchesi, Amina Mohamed, Rahma Mohamed, Malechi Moore, Matthew Moore, Grace Elaine Ohlendorf, Ju Hta Paw, Hannah Plevin, Paw Boe Say and Naw Tha Da.
Support for this exhibition and accompanying programs is provided by the Beatrice Haggerty Endowment Fund, the Frederick A. and Mary Ellen Muth Program Endowment, the Haggerty Museum Sommerich Fund, the Joan Pick Endowment Fund, the Lillian Rojtman Berkman Endowment Fund, the Marquette University Women’s Council Endowment Fund, the Martha and Ray Smith, Jr. Endowment Fund, the Mary Martha Doerr Endowment Fund, the Nelson Goodman Endowment Fund, the Richard P. Herzfeld Endowment Fund, the Spicuzza/Hambling Quasi-Endowed Fund, the Stackner Family Endowment Fund, and Greater Milwaukee Foundation.