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Books In The Window: WE BELONG: Making Commons, Making Community
How do we make—and share—place? This display gathers artists, theorists, and organizers who reimagine belonging not as a private sentiment but as a shared, public practice. This display is inspired by We All Belong (2025), a new mural by MasPaz created in dialogue with Offering the Potomac: Acknowledging Indigenous Place. The mural reflects on interconnectedness and reciprocity among humans, animals, and the natural world. From Meridel Rubenstein’s storied landscapes of Los Alamos and Vietnam to Ray Oldenburg’s notion of “third places,” these selections trace how people co-create spaces of care, memory, and conviviality. The commons appears here as both method and horizon: Elinor Ostrom’s field-defining work on collective governance…
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Books In The Window: From Gutenberg to Algorithems
“Medium is the Message,” Marshall McLuhan proclaimed in 1964, a prescient insight into how media, from television to today’s algorithms, shapes society beyond its content. We at Provisions Library for Art and Social Change are delighted to present our summer Books in the Window Collection: From Gutenberg to Algorithms, a vibrant display of 15 works that explore media culture’s profound influence on our world. We invite you to journey through media’s evolution—from the dawn of print to the complexities of artificial intelligence—reflecting on how these technologies mold our values, identities, and futures. Organized into four themes—Foundations of Media Culture, Technology…
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Books In The Window: Indigeneity & Diaspora
Indigeneity is deeply rooted in connections to land, community, and cultural heritage. Yet, it also carries the histories of displacement, forced migration, and survival in the face of colonialism and socio-economic hardship. For those removed from their ancestral homelands, the struggle to reclaim roots and sustain cultural traditions remains ongoing. At the same time, Indigenous peoples who migrate to lands with layered histories seek to maintain their cultural identities while honoring the histories and communities of the places they now inhabit. In this way, indigeneity and diaspora are inextricably intertwined. When land, history, and people are acknowledged with respect, these…
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Books In the Window: Holidays & Celebrations
December & January Theme: Holidays & Celebrations As the holiday season approaches, Provisions Library invites you to explore the vibrant world of holidays, festivals, and celebrations in this month’s Books in the Window display. Holidays and celebrations extend far beyond surface-level joy and festivity. They reveal rich layers of cultural, economic, and political significance. Through what we celebrate, how we celebrate, and with whom we celebrate, these moments illuminate the values, traditions, and complexities of our shared human experience. Celebrations as Traditions Celebrations are deeply rooted in religious, spiritual, ethnic, and cultural practices. They carry the weight of history, offering…
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Books In the Window: Persona & Visual Identity
Provisions Library is excited to introduce Books in the Window, a monthly book display that highlights thought-provoking themes. October & November Theme: Persona & Visual Identity What’s your PERSONA? Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, describes “persona” as the social face individuals present to the world—”a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual.” NOTHING PERSONAL in Gillespie Gallery offers an ideal starting point to examine the complex interaction between individuals and their social appearance. October’s book theme, PERSONA & VISUAL IDENTITY, explores…
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Art as Research
ART AS RESEARCH Opening Reception Thursday, Sept 25, 5 – 7:30 pm September 25 – October 24, 2014 Fine Art Gallery, Art & Design Building, George Mason University, Fairfax Campus Featuring: Greg Bloom with Jenn Stowe (DC), Gareth Branwyn (DC), Riah Buchanan (Los Angeles), Kate Chandler (DC), Edgar Endress (St. Augustine), Paul Farber (Philadelphia), Katie Hargrave (Chattanooga), Robbie Herbst (Los Angeles), Scott Holmquist (Berlin), James Huckenpahler (DC), Pam Jordan (Berlin), Nate Larson (Baltimore), IMAGE: Pedro Lasch (Raleigh-Durham), Jaimes Mayhew (Baltimore), Katie Grace McGowan (Detroit), Anne Elizabeth Moore with Julia Gfröer (Chicago), Susan Morgan (Los Angeles), Heidi Neilson (Brooklyn), H Huong…
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Windows from Prison
When a DC citizen enters the federal penitentiary system they may find themselves thousands of miles from family and friends. Windows from Prison seeks to bridge this distance by asking prisoners: “If you could have a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?” Based on hundreds of responses, photography students at George Mason University and Duke Ellington High School collaborated to create the requested images, which were then printed and sent to the incarcerated participants. These photographs will also be displayed publically and online in order to open dialogues around the sources, impacts, and alternatives…
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MULTIMEDIALE – CAPTURING THE CAPITAL
An innovative four-day new media arts festival hosted by American University and Provisions Library, Multimediale brought together artists working with the theme of art as mediation. The festival, co-organized and curated by Randall Packer & Niels Van Tomme, included artists who are prominent faculty members of art schools and educational institutions from around the Washington Metropolitan area, such as John James Anderson, Mark Cooley, Edgar Endress, Jeff Gates, Brian Judy, Randall Packer, Siobhan Rigg, and Fereshteh Toosi. The festival occurred April 19-22, 2007. The trailer for the festival is available here.
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AESTHETIC JUSTICE
Organized by Provisions, Aesthetic Justice was a group exhibition at the Lambent Foundation in New York, featuring works by Alyse Emdur, Rajkamal Kahlon, Carlos Motta & Josué Euceda, and Larissa Sansour. Introducing the concept of aesthetic justice, that is justice from an aesthetic perspective instead of a legal one, the exhibition underscored the transformative potential of linking these concepts. By displaying contemporary artworks critical to notions of fairness, interdependency, protection, and equality; the artists investigated the ways in which formal and conceptual strategies enhance an understanding of responsibility and responsiveness. Aesthetic Justice reflected upon the question of justice within the four specific socio-political…
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