"This is not a conversation we can do just once... That would be violent."
Juan Omar Rodriguez, PAFA Curatorial Fellow
In the final episode, we hear a three-way conversation on labor, art, and care unfold with former PAFA Curatorial Fellow Juan Omar Rodriguez, former PAFA Manager of Exhibitions and Interpretation Ellie Clark, and host Adrianna Brusie. Juan Omer and Ellie were important organizers in the “Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America” exhibit, and in their conversation they meaningfully engage with decolonization as a global imperative that requires not merely shifts in exhibition practices, but total reconfigurations of labor, value, and care. 

the exhibition

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), in partnership with the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP), will invite 20 contemporary artists to create newly commissioned artworks that consider the question: Is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy? The exhibition is rooted in the use of the rising sun as a metaphor from two defining moments in U.S. history: a question asked by Benjamin Franklin in 1787—is the sun rising or setting on the United States—and the line “Facing the rising sun of our new day begun” from Lift Every Voice and Sing (or “The Black National Anthem”) written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900. Today, when the U.S. finds itself again at a critical crossroads, these ideas put forth by Franklin and Johnson—spoken, written, and sung— persist in the work of the contemporary artists in Rising Sun. The exhibition aims to leverage the power of contemporary art to create immersive experiences that make visible the reality that one citizen’s democratic utopia may be another’s lived dystopia.
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Rendering of We Emerge from the Sunset of Your Ideology from Saya Woolfalk’s proposal for Rising Sun. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

episode participants

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Portrait by Liza Voll Photography.
Juan Omar Rodriguez (he/him) is a curator of contemporary art and has worked with Latinx artists, queer artists, and emerging artists of color. He is a former board member of the Boston LGBTQIA+ Arts Alliance and has worked on numerous exhibitions including ones at the Cambridge Arts Association, Boston CyberArts, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Learn more about Juan Omar here. 
Ellie Clark (she/her) is the Manager of Exhibitions and Interpretation at PAFA. She has worked on a variety of projects with nonprofits, philanthropies, galleries, and art fairs, including The Armory Show and The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage.
Adrianna Brusie (she/they) is a writer, organizer, and student at the University of Pennsylvania studying Art HIstory and Cultural Anthropology. She is the Editor-In-Chief of t-art magazine and their work focuses contemporary queer and Latinx art. Recently, she co-curated the exhibition Resilience: Art & Design in Times of Uncertainty featuring young artists from throughout the Philadelphia area. 

links

"Lift Every Voice And Sing (restored)" by James Weldon Johnson, J. Rosamond Johnson, and The Southern Sons (https://archive.org/details/78_lift-every-voice-and-sing_james-weldon-johnson-j.-rosamond-johnson-the-southern-son_gbia0000392b) 
"Ambience3" by Independent Music Licensing Collective (IMLC) (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/independent-music-licensing-collective-imlc/emotive-ambience-licensing-pack-ketsa/ambience3/) licensed under CC BY NC ND 4.0
"Large heavy door" by SonicRealityFX (https://freesound.org/people/SonicRealityFX/sounds/436867/) licensed under CC 3.0
"s museum" by(cmusounddesign (https://freesound.org/people/cmusounddesign/sounds/89067/) licensed under CC 3.0
"Money Collect 1" by mitchanary ( https://freesound.org/people/mitchanary/sounds/522711/ ) licensed under CC 4.0
“handwriting” by blukotek ( https://freesound.org/people/blukotek/sounds/246060/ ) licensed under CC 0 
“Turning Newspaper Pages 1” by Aiwha ( https://freesound.org/people/Aiwha/sounds/496144/ ) licensed under CC 3.0 
“Till Open and Close” by muse384 ( https://freesound.org/people/muse384/sounds/191436/ ) licensed under CC 0
“Bag with wheels” by Spyboticer ( https://freesound.org/people/Spyboticer/sounds/407173/ ) licensed under CC 0
“Paper flipping (3.16)” by sechavez ( https://freesound.org/people/sechavez3499/sounds/586519/ ) licensed under CC 0
“clock_tick_loop2” by Syna-Max ( https://freesound.org/people/Syna-Max/sounds/58812/ ) licensed under CCBY 3.0
“Mechanical Keyboard Typing (Bass Version) by stu556 ( https://freesound.org/people/stu556/sounds/450281/ ) licensed under CC 0
“Ethan_Celata_001_draweropen” by ec3638 ( https://freesound.org/people/ec3638/sounds/619994/ ) licensed under CC 0
“Demonstration 2” by poorenglishjuggler ( https://freesound.org/people/poorenglishjuggler/sounds/155639/ ) licensed under CC 0
“Street Noise in the city 2” by oficerUB ( https://freesound.org/people/oficerUB/sounds/346105/ ) licensed under CC 0