Library of Congress Awards More than $160,000 to Artists, Scholars to Remix Digital Collections

The Library of Congress has revealed two awards totaling more than $160,000 have been awarded from the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative through a program available to artists and scholars. The program is part of the Library's Of the People: Widening the Path initiative. The 2024 awardees, Maya Freelon and Allie Martin, will use these funds to produce projects that artistically and creatively remix and reuse the Library's digital collections.

“These awards are particularly exciting because we get to witness how artists approach the digital collections. By connecting their own unique artistic, methodological and technological practices, Freelon and Martin will surface new and meaningful ways to   interface with and reimagine the Library's digital collections,” said Program Director Marya McQuirter.

Maya Freelon ($89,962.25)

PROJECT: “Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States”

LOCATION: Durham, North Carolina

DESCRIPTION: Artist and educator Maya Freelon will produce an interactive art exhibition titled “Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States.” Freelon will use archival photographs from the Bess Lomax Hawes collection and other Library digital collections to create new artwork focused on images of Black children born in America. Freelon will reprint high-resolution photographic images, transforming them into unique commemorative works of art to honor and celebrate the innocence, beauty and resilience of Black children. By reworking and reimagining archival images of Black children born into slavery and juxtaposing them with contemporary images, Freelon's project will examine the ethics of photographing children from the early 1800s to today, simultaneously offering new ways to visualize and honor Black childhood. https://www.mayafreelon.com/

Allie Martin ($73,676.75)

PROJECT: “Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention”

LOCATION: Hanover, New Hampshire

DESCRIPTION: Ethnomusicologist, sound artist and Professor Allie Martin will develop a soundscape and community engagement project titled “Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention.” Martin will create original soundscape compositions – short sonic vignettes layering sounds from the Library's digital collections with field recordings and composed music – to produce in-depth explorations into the sounds of Black life. Her work will use audio materials from the Library's Voices Remembering Slavery, Chicago Ethnic Arts Project and Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals collections. Martin will also produce a “sampling with critical intention” methodology detailing how to approach recordings of Black life with critical attention to their context, provenance and historical and contemporary significance. Martin's work will incorporate sampling techniques from the world of hip-hop to encourage critical reflection on the contents of the Library's digital collections as well as imaginative uses of their sounds. Her residency will culminate in several community listening sessions where Martin will explain her compositions and invite conversation about listening more fully to Black life. https://alliemartinphd.com/

About Of the People: Widening the Path Launched in January 2021, Of the People: Widening the Path is a multiyear initiative to connect the Library more deeply with Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color. Supported through a gift from the Mellon Foundation, it provides new opportunities for more Americans to engage with the Library and add their perspectives to the Library's collections. This work will expand the Library's efforts to ensure that a diversity of experiences is reflected in our historical record and inform how we use those materials to understand our past.

About the Library

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

To post a comment, you must register and login.