October 2024
Learning from ACT UP: Tactics of Direct Action
Exhibition design
The Learning from ACT UP: Tactics of Direct Action exhibition, by focusing on the actions initiated by the founding New York chapter from 1987-1993, performatively shows how one might react to a social crisis, reach a broad audience, change the discourse of “business as usual,” and initiate systemic change.
On View: October 5 – December 14, 2024
Curated by Juli Carson and Sasha Ussef
University Art Gallery, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
University of California, Irvine
About the Exhibition:
We live in tumultuous times. There are culture wars the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1980s. Looming even larger is a pernicious anti-democratic turn—in both the US and abroad—that’s instilled a general sense of dread whenever elections approach. Unsurprisingly, there’s a strong desire to organize, act, and make positive change. To be the protagonist of an empowering counter-narrative. Learning from ACT UP: Tactics of Direct Action is a performative installation—comprised of film, graphics, and archival material—that demonstrate what dogged but peaceful civil disobedience might achieve. How, in fact, it might even change the world.
On View: October 5 – December 14, 2024
Curated by Juli Carson and Sasha Ussef
University Art Gallery, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
University of California, Irvine
About the Exhibition:
We live in tumultuous times. There are culture wars the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1980s. Looming even larger is a pernicious anti-democratic turn—in both the US and abroad—that’s instilled a general sense of dread whenever elections approach. Unsurprisingly, there’s a strong desire to organize, act, and make positive change. To be the protagonist of an empowering counter-narrative. Learning from ACT UP: Tactics of Direct Action is a performative installation—comprised of film, graphics, and archival material—that demonstrate what dogged but peaceful civil disobedience might achieve. How, in fact, it might even change the world.
