The New Freedom Project
MISSION / THE PRESERVATION OF FREEDOM
Inspired by freedom, it is the mission of The New Freedom Project to provide cultural and artistic experiences that educate individuals and communities about African-American heritage, art and culture.
By reflecting on the wisdom of those who have come before, The New Freedom Project seeks to ignite a new freedom movement today.
GOALS / COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING
Engage audiences in critical community dialogue around freedom, social justice and equity.
Encourage and facilitate the preservation of all history by providing cultural content and programs which celebrate African-American history and culture and freedom.
Insight a movement for a present generation to affect change inspired by the examples of civil and human rights movements throughout history.
“The work of Charmaine Minniefield is full of the joy of life. She takes the viewer into the spiritual realm and holds them there. Her work addresses the process of ritual and the accompanying oral history gleaned through stories handed down. Her work converses with the ancestors and they guide her brushes as she examines the visceral elements that are so important in navigating through life. There are many lessons to be learned from this gifted artist. Her work is magic.”
Artist, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier
Philosophy
THE VISUAL ART OF ANCESTRAL MEMORY
My work invokes the power of the ancestors. By creating visual road maps from the past to the present, paved by the history and stories, love and heartache, success and failures of the ancestors, it celebrates the Ancestral Memory in us all. I believe that by reclaiming the stories of our ancestors and by praising and committing to their memory, we will better understand ourselves as a society and our collective potential.
Sacred Symbols
Most indigenous traditions around the world hold sacred the veneration and respect of their ancestors. This practice remains evident throughout history whether consciously performed or not. Symbols of cultural value systems decorate walls, grace the faces of currency, educating the children of societies past and present. Symbols are often branded with the names or images of someone’s ancestors, those that societies hold dear and whose legacy continues to inspire. Today streets are named after war generals, past presidents and Civil Rights leaders. Mountains are hewn with images of those once empowered. These sacred symbols, however mundane or profound, remembers with respect those that have gone before. It is these symbols, often displaying images of those passed on, that continue to inform the ethical systems of today.
The NEW FREEDOM Project celebrates newly freed African-Americans as icons of hope. This project recognizes the achievement and strength of a people who although most recently affected by slavery, somehow created a place for themselves within the shifting American landscape. This project seeks to reclaim the “ancestral memory” of the African-American experience by engaging audiences in their own journey through history, asking them to remember their ancestors and to find and retell their stories – the American story.
Freedom.
The word is my prayer.
-Gullah-
