The Fine Print of Freedom

The United States Colored Troops (USCT) fought for freedom proclaimed yet persistently withheld or in conflict. Their service was a revolutionary act of self-definition, a radical claim to personhood, dignity, and citizenship, even as the systems around them refused to fully deliver on those promises. This exhibition reflects on the legacy of that struggle and asks what freedom has looked like for Black Americans across generations when that freedom has so often come with conditions.

Terms & Conditions: The Promise vs. Reality invites audiences to explore the complex evolution of emancipation and Black liberation through the lens of historical context and the Black imagination. Contemporary artists use their creative practice to investigate, challenge, and reimagine what freedom has meant to the USCT during “emancipation” and Black Americans across time, space, and built-in systems of anti-blackness. Interpretive history panels and QR codes guide viewers through pivotal historical moments, from the Emancipation Proclamation myth to the Reconstruction Amendments loopholes, the commercialized symbolism of Juneteenth, and the enduring consequences of delayed justice.

The exhibition explores the fine print of freedom not as a fixed or guaranteed reality but as a shifting and conditional one shaped by race, labor, wealth, and law. It reveals how freedom in the United States has often been defined more by exclusions and exceptions than by universal access. In navigating these exclusions, Black communities have redefined liberation and shaped the foundations of American culture through deeply rooted forms of cultural expression that have long served as tools for survival.

In creating this culture, Black communities find internal forms of liberation that exist outside the confines of the system, sustaining joy, identity, and self-determination in the face of structural denial. In a country where rights are routinely rewritten, rolled back, or refused, this project asks what it truly means to be free when the conditions still vary.

Featuring new and recent works by Ann Johnson, Nathaniel Donnett, Alexis Pye, David McGee, Kaneem Smith, Cat Martinez, Tay Butler, Lanecia Rouse, Phillip Pyle II, Robert Pruitt, and Anthony Suber, and a filmed performance by Brian Ellison, the exhibition brings together multiple generations of Black artists interpreting the legacy of the USCT and Black liberation through painting, sculpture, installation, collage, and drawing.