USF's Contemporary Art Museum is the First National Participant in Public Art Campaign

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Contemporary Art Museum is the first national participant in Pledges of Allegiance, a public art endeavor consisting of the exhibition of 16 flags created by prominent artists working with the New York-based public art organization Creative Time.

The Contemporary Art Museum's participation in the project marks its commitment to employing the arts as a channel for encouraging a sense of community and facilitating important dialogues through art.

In Pledges of Allegiance, a new flag by one of the 16 participating artists is flown each month in New York City at the Creative Time headquarters and at 67 Hudson Street in the New York City neighborhood of TriBeCa facing Freedom Tower. Additionally, the flags are to exhibit at a network of partner sites, the Contemporary Art Museum being the first. The project's participating artists include Alex Da Corte, Jeremy Deller, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Yoko Ono.

On view for July is artist Tania Bruguera's flag, Dignity Has No Nationality, which illustrates a vision of dignity for all peoples with the image of a unified global continent. Nato Thompson, artistic director of Creative Time, elaborates on the implications of this work and the reason for its deliberate showing in the month of July.

"For July, a month of national pride and a celebration of freedom, Tania Bruguera's flag proposes a vision of dignity, inclusive of all peoples — regardless of citizenship and national territorial belonging," said Thompson. "Dignity Has No Nationality reminds us that we are part of a global society," says Nato Thompson, Artistic Director of Creative Time. "This flag clearly pushes back not only on xenophobia, but also misguided notions of social inclusion."

Dignity Has No Nationality is on view through the end of July at the facade of the Contemporary Art Museum on USF Holly Drive.