“Can an artist inspire social change?” Carrie Mae Weems—a 2015 Ford Foundation Art of Change fellow—thinks she can. In a keynote speech at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC this Sunday, 15 November, Weems discussed some of her socially engaged projects in Syracuse, New York, which has the highest concentration of extreme poverty among African Americans and Hispanics in the US.
Her work in the city included a billboard and lawn sign campaign, and her work with teenagers. “I really don’t like kids all that much—I care about them, but I don’t like them” she candidly said to audience laughter. After her talk, Weems sat down to continue the topic in a discussion with Robert Raben, the president and founder of the Raben Group, moderated by the Washington Post columnist Lonnae O’Neal.
The most fascinating part of the evening was hearing Weems discuss her passion for arts across disciplines—getting lost in Anna Karenina’s Russia, how music “has saved my life”, her interest in folklore—and what it takes to be an artist—“a very difficult thing to do, because you’re constantly living emotionally”. Weems was also refreshingly down-to-earth in her self-reflection: “It’s not all that easy waking up to my ass,” she said of her husband.
The next talk, on 27 January 2016 with the Dutch designer Gabriel Maher and the International New York Times critic Alice Rawsthorn, will ask “Can design be genderless?” The programme, which started in October, is scheduled to continue throughout the year. All the talks will be streamed and recorded.