Exhibit: Flags

Flags represent everything — from a nation to a world view to one’s affinity and allegiance to a sports team. They’re objects that are saturated with meaning. The GAAC’s FLAGS exhibit offers a variety of flags — artwork that comments on the state of our nation’s culture wars; flags that show sojourners the way to freedom; flags that are prayerful; patriotic in a very traditional sense; and pay homage to the seasons.

FLAGS exhibitors are: Sarah Bearup-Neal, Linda J. Beeman, Nik Burhart, Cherie Correll, Linda Alice Dewey, Denise I. Dunn, Mary Fortuna, Tina Greco, Dorothy Grow, Marcia Guetschow, Jessica Kovan, Michele LeTourneur, Mercedes Michalowski, Chris Nettleton, Robert Pearson, Robin Sorquist, Mark Videan

FLAGS Companion Programs

Community Prayer Flag Project: The 2022 Clothesline Exhibit will springboard off the FLAGS exhibition. Using the Tibetan prayer flag as a model and inspiration, we’ll convene a community effort to create prayer flags for our time. An outdoor exhibit, hung from clotheslines in the GAAC Front Yard and Grove. FREE. May 27 – August 18.

Beach Bards Bonus Bonfire: FLAGS Edition:  An evening of poetry, stories + music about flags, with Leelanau County’s hometown wordsmiths, the Beach Bards. For more than three decades, the Beach Bards have been celebrating the written and spoken word around Leelanau County campfires. This special edition is open to all poets and writers of any skill level. In the GAAC Grove, 7-9 pm, August 2.

Flags + Free Speech: In 1989, as a 23-year-old student, artist Dread Scott exhibited an artwork called What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag? (1988) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). It featured an American flag placed on the gallery’s floor. Read about the uproar, the backlash, and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court case that established First Amendment protections to desecration of the flag. Read more here.

Dread Scott’s 2018 TED Talk: Learn more about the artist’s thinking about his 1989 exhibition. Watch the video here.