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Light Your Fire: Teens Give Voice to Public Art
June 11, 2022 | 1:00 pm–4:00 pm

This event is brought to you by the Hirshhorn’s Artlab for teens and is open to visitors of all ages.
Light up your Saturday afternoon with the Hirshhorn’s Artlab Emerging Artist showcase and celebration. Throughout the spring, teens have been exploring and responding to public art, with the goal of reimagining monuments and memorials. Now, visitors of all ages are invited to experience their work.
Teen artists will share a collective monumental work titled Hoping for Change, which will remain on view in the Artlab, June 11–24, 2022, before moving to its permanent home at DC’s Coolidge High School. Teens will also share original poetry and perform with local artist Monica Jahan Bose.
The accessible entrance to the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden is located on the south (Mall) entrance.
This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
SCHEDULE
1:15 pm Welcome (at Light of Freedom by Abigail DeVille)
1:30 pm Poetry Reading (at Light of Freedom by Abigail DeVille)
1:45 pm Performance by Emerging Artists with Monica Jahan Bose, lower Sculpture Garden
2 pm Unveiling of Hoping for Change
2:15 pm Meet and mingle with the Emerging Artists
ABOUT EMERGING ARTISTS
Emerging Artists is a semester-long program that challenges teens to create original works of art responding to a particular topic or current exhibition. Each program wraps up with a showcase in a Hirshhorn gallery.
In Spring 2022, Artlab is partnering with DC Public Schools for Light Your Fire, an exploration of public art. Using pieces like Abigail DeVille’s Light of Freedom for inspiration, participants will create works that reimagine monuments and memorials. Centered in the city of Washington, DC—where every building, park, and plaza has a story—the Emerging Artists will use art, performance, and music to explore and highlight stories missing from the public narrative.