Authoritarian assaults on free thinking, fellow feeling, and creative making call for artists to unite in defiance. The 2nd annual Fall of Freedom festival convokes us to assemble, to curate, to be in public as a political body. “Political art” has an all too familiar repertoire, but uncertain effects. What media, modes, styles, and ideas activate political critique and political organization today? How can we collect and sustain forms and experiences that refuse profit laundering and prestige mining?

To pose and indeed begin to answer these questions, In These Times magazine hosts a Fall of Freedom exhibition October 2–4, 2026. Curators Anna Kornbluh and David Maruzzella invite proposals from Chicago-based participants, with the following parameters:

• Discrete: 2D works or small 3D works suitable for a small, untraditional gallery space

• Moveable via public transport for installation or easily transportable to gallery space in Logan Square/Bucktown

• Chicago or midwest themes encouraged

• No artworks featuring words with explicit, didactic political messages/slogans

• No generative AI in any phase of the work, attested by artist

Prospective participants should email brief statements of interest, and photos of proposed piece(s), to interccect@gmail.com by Aug 10, for invitation by Aug 31.

Selected participants will receive a modest honorarium in lieu of “exposure" and are requested to attend joyful opening festivities on the evening of Friday, October 2.