Featuring projects by artists including Mel Chin, Jeffrey Gibson, Marie Watt, Adriana Corral, and Mel Ziegler, 12 gatherings across the nation will bring artists, makers, and residents together through shared meals, collective making, and acts of hosting and gifting
United States, August 25, 2026 – Why We Gather, a yearlong series of artist-led gatherings taking place in 12 rural communities across the United States, launched with its first project in Rushville, Nebraska on August 2, 2026, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Conceived as a mosaic portrait of the nation in this historic anniversary year, the initiative brings together artists, makers, and residents to reflect on the societal forces shaping their communities today, while considering the role local voices play in building the country’s future. Initiated by artists with deep roots and longstanding relationships in their respective communities, Why We Gather unfolds through 12 gatherings between August 2026 and July 2027, creating opportunities for cultural exchange and civic dialogue in cities across the country.
Gatherings address issues ranging from climate resilience, land stewardship, and cultural preservation to food sovereignty, migration, mutual aid, water access, and intergenerational knowledge sharing. Across the 12 locations, artists who are already deeply embedded within these communities are working with local partners to develop gatherings shaped by regional foodways, cultural traditions, and community priorities. Organized around the principles of hosting and gifting, each gathering centers on a shared meal and includes the creation of a functional object produced by local makers and gifted to participants.The guest lists for each gathering are determined by the artists and local partners, focusing on individuals they want to thank, honor, and celebrate, and range from 40-400 participants.
Gatherings take many forms, including film screenings, storytelling events, and communal craftmaking. These include Mel Ziegler’s Self-Evident in Nebraska, which invited participants from across all 50 states and U.S. territories to collectively reimagine the Declaration of Independence through a large-scale installation of 1,332 handwritten words displayed on T-shirts in Rushville’s Modisett Park; Ger Xiong’s workshops centering Hmong metalworking and jewelry traditions across Wisconsin; DesertArtLAB’s weaving and basket-making activities using locally harvested materials in Colorado; and Las Nietas de Nonó’s Puerto Rico gathering, where artist-designed dishware and a newly constructed kiosko, or traditional open-air food stand, serve as platforms for shared meals and conversation.
Other projects range from a community dinner celebrating the diversity of Indigenous communities hosted by Jeffrey Gibson in Oklahoma and featuring original dishware created by Gibson and Oklahoma-based artists Anita Fields and Yatika Starr Fields, to a storytelling event hosted by Mel Chin in North Carolina that reflects on the history of a former maternity hospital as a site of care, exchange, and collective memory, to Adriana Corral’s gathering with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, centered on a film screening that addresses land loss and resilience after Hurricane Ida.
Other participating artists include Saleem Hue Penny, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, brontë velez, Nicole Marroquin, and Marie Watt. Together, the gatherings take place in communities spanning Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Michigan, Colorado, and New York.
Led by Independent Curator Abigail Winograd, who was part of the curatorial team for the 2024 U.S. Pavilion featuring the work of Jeffrey Gibson, and with lead support from The Hearthland Foundation as part of its grantmaking around America’s 250th anniversary, Why We Gather reflects a commitment to ensuring that access to meaningful artistic and cultural experiences is not determined by geography. At a time when cultural resources and opportunities are often concentrated in major metropolitan areas, the project creates opportunities for artistic participation and creative engagement in rural communities across the United States, illustrating how artists and residents in every region contribute to the nation’s cultural life.
“At its core, Why We Gather is grounded in the belief that all communities should have opportunities to participate in ambitious artistic and cultural programming and that artists have an important role to play in fostering civic and community life,” said curator Abigail Winograd. “By supporting artists working in community, commissioning local makers, and investing directly in regional creative economies, the project expands access to arts and cultural experiences while building on the strengths, traditions, and knowledge already present in each place.”
Why We Gather draws inspiration from the drafting process of the Declaration of Independence, which underwent multiple revisions, committee deliberations, and debate before its adoption. In this spirit of drafting and active engagement, the project convenes communities to listen, share stories, and consider the challenges and possibilities shaping each place today. Rather than advancing a singular narrative of the United States at 250, the project reflects the distinct histories and perspectives of communities across the country while exploring the role they play in shaping the nation’s future.
The project also advances a broader model for cultural investment rooted in long-term relationships, local collaboration, and shared authorship. In treating the Semiquincentennial not as an endpoint but as a moment of reflection and a catalyst for continued engagement, Why We Gather fosters sustained practices of cultural participation and community-building that extend beyond the anniversary year.
Each gathering is photographed and documented, creating an evolving record of conversations taking place across the 12 communities, and community stories will be collected and archived in an online portal. The project will also be accompanied by a catalog that brings together reflections and stories from across the gatherings. The series will culminate in October 2027 with a final convening that brings all the artists together to extend local conversations and networks into a national dialogue.
Gatherings
More information will be available on 2027 events later this year
Mel Ziegler & Sandhills Institute
Rushville, Nebraska
August 2, 2026
Mel Ziegler’s Self-Evident, created in collaboration with the Sandhills Institute, invites participants from across all 50 states and U.S. territories to reflect on the Declaration of Independence on the 250th anniversary of its signing. A range of individuals, including Rushville residents and members of community and civic organizations from across the country, were invited to handwrite one word of the Declaration. Each participant’s first name, assigned word, and the word’s numerical position were then transferred onto a T-shirt, and all 1,332 shirts are installed in order on clotheslines in Rushville’s Modisett Park. Through a community reimagining of the foundational document, the work reframes the Declaration as a collective text and will culminate in a gathering featuring a barbecue, pie, and ice cream social, and opportunities for participants and community members to engage with the installation.
Mel Ziegler (b. 1956) is an artist, educator, and curator whose socially engaged practice examines art in public space, the socially constructed dimensions of the natural environment, manual labor, and collaboration between artists and communities. He founded the Sandhills Institute in 2014 and serves as its Founder and Executive Director, establishing a residency and art space in Rushville rooted in civically integrated art and rural cultural life.
Mel Chin & SOURCE Studio
Egypt Township, North Carolina
September 26, 2026
Developed in collaboration with SOURCE Studio, Mel Chin’s gathering will bring together individuals connected to his studio, a former community center and maternity hospital that served Yancey County, North Carolina. Cradle invites those who were born in the old hospital to gather around shared histories, partake in a meal, and generate a work of art together. Taking place on the second anniversary of Hurricane Helene, the gathering will feature international food prepared by local chefs, storytelling, and a traditional Chinese tea tasting, inviting participants to imagine a climate of nurturing and connection in a divided time.
Mel Chin’s (b. 1951) art employs a wide range of approaches, from unique, idiosyncratic objects to operations that require multidisciplinary collaboration. His work includes Revival Field (1990-1993), which pioneered the process of “green remediation.” He is the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the winner of the 12th Hiroshima Art Prize.
Jeffrey Gibson, Anita Fields & Yatika Starr Fields
Cherokee Nation, Cherokee County, Oklahoma
October 24, 2026
Jeffrey Gibson, together with Oklahoma-based artists Anita Fields and Yatika Starr Fields, will host an interdisciplinary gathering at Camp Sevenstar on Lake Tenkiller celebrating the rich constellation of Indigenous artistic traditions, languages, and community practices across Oklahoma, which is home to 39 federally recognized tribes. Guests will come together for shared cultural experiences, including dance performances, poetry readings, storytelling, and a communal meal prepared by Cherokee chefs, with original dishware produced in collaboration with Frankoma Pottery and gifted to participants.
Jeffrey Gibson (b.1972) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale, and his work is held in major collections including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Las Nietas de Nonó (mulowayi Iyaye & mapenzi chibale de Nonó) & Parceleras Afrocaribeñas
San Antón-Carolina, Puerto Rico
November 14, 2026
Las Nietas de Nonó’s gathering will take place in collaboration with Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, the community art organization co-founded by the artists. As a counter-narrative of thecelebration of Discovery Day in Puerto Rico, the assembly will center Afro-Caribbean culinary traditions, food sovereignty, and local forms of memory and resistance through live performances, poetry readings, and a communal meal. Taking place at La Conde, a community center, the meal will be prepared by Loíza-based chef Aracelis “Celi” Pizarro Rivera and served in a Kiosko built for the gathering, with dishware by Gadiel Rivera Herrera based on Arawakan artistry and napkins featuring illustrations designed by Valerie Sosa inspired by the fruit forest surrounding the center.
Las Nietas de Nonó is the collaborative practice of Afro-diasporic siblings mulowayi iyaye nonó (b. 1979) and mapenzi chibale nonó (b. 1982), whose work evokes ancestral memory through archives, performance, found objects, ecology, fiction, video and installation. In 2019, they co-founded Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, a Black womxn-led organization creating spaces for environmental and racial justice in response to industrial development in their barrio.
Adriana Corral & Janaye Brown
Pointe-au-Chien, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
December 5, 2026
Adriana Corral’s gathering builds on her collaboration with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe following the devastation of Hurricane Ida. The assembly will include the premiere of a short film by Corral and Janaye Brown about the landscape after Ida, followed by a meal featuring locally sourced seafood and ingredients prepared by tribal community cooks. The project will also support upgrades to the community center to create a space large enough for community gatherings and an archival cypress table for residents’ stories and objects. Sculpted oyster shells made with youth during the tribe’s annual Culture Camp will be gifted to attendees.
Adriana Corral (b. 1983) createsinstallations, sculptures, drawings, and films that confront histories that are often threatened by erasure. She meticulously uncovers primary documents while also investigating the physical and cultural landscapes of the sites she works with—examining the soil, the built environment, and the community’s collective memory. Corral critically examines the nuances of immigration, citizenship, economic trade, labor, public health, and policies in both national and international contexts that are informed by past and contemporary issues. These refined, contemplative works aim to facilitate the restitution of memory and to stand witness to the past in order to empower humane acts in the present and future.
Saleem Hue Penny
Congaree River Basin, South Carolina
February 13, 2027
Saleem Hue Penny’s multigenerational gathering will be hosted in the “Green Heart” of South Carolina, a region bordered by the Congaree, Wateree, and Upper Santee Rivers. The half-day gathering will feature hands-on workshops in Catawba crafts, Black ecopoetry, and intergenerational storybanking. Following community conversations on land stewardship and local foodways, participants will gather for a “Tailgate Town Square.”
Saleem Hue Penny (b. 1980) is a Black, disabled hybrid poet from Columbia, South Carolina, whose work expands the pastoral tradition of the Southern Black Belt through a self-described “rural hip-hop blues” aesthetic. His art and advocacy are rooted in disability justice. Saleem is a Cave Canem Fellow, United States Artists Disability Futures Fellow, and a founding worker-owner of Cooperation Racine, LWCA, an arts co-op in Englewood, Chicago.
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Arivaca, Arizona
March 20, 2027
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s gathering extends conversations around the artist’s ongoing project for a Sonoran Desert Well that addresses water and water access across a myriad of concerns with respect to the unique context of this border community.
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (b. 1961) is a conceptual artist known for sculpture, video, installation, and community-based projects that explore identity, migration, and the social and environmental consequences of modern systems. He is the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University.
brontë velez
Kashia Pomo Territory, Sonoma County, California
April 25, 2027
Developed in collaboration with The School for Inclement Weather in Kashia Pomo territory, brontë velez’s Fire Feast will honor local communities creating firebreaks: Indigenous and otherwise fire practitioners, land stewards, cultural workers, teachers, and elders engaged in traditional ecological knowledge, land stewardship, and memory-keeping for endangered practices.
brontë velez (b. 1994) is a black-boricua transdisciplinary ritual artist, shepherd, and cultural worker whose eco-social practice seeks to restore sacred relationships between labor, land, ritual, and craft. They are co-director of The School for Inclement Weather in Kashia Pomo territory, adult programs director and climate chaplain for ATTUNE at Weaving Earth, and an MDiv candidate at Duke Divinity.
Nicole Marroquin
Ypsilanti, Michigan
May 22, 2027
Nicole Marroquin’s gathering extends her long-term effort to create a community art space and print studio in Ypsilanti, with space for young people and community participation and collaboration.
Nicole Marroquin (b. 1970) is an artist whose work explores spatial justice, belonging, and Midwest histories while addressing displacement and erasure. A 2022 United States Artist Fellow and member of Justseeds and Chicago ACT, she uses research and creative practice to recover histories of Black and brown youth and women’s leadership in struggles for self-determination.
Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj
Appleton, Wisconsin
June 5, 2027
Ger Xiong’s project will unfold through a series of workshops in Hmong communities in Wisconsin and will center Hmong metalwork and jewelry traditions, inviting participants to reflect on history, grief and loss, colonization, assimilation, and migration while practicing traditional craftmaking, and contributing to a growing archive of Hmong experiences. Xiong’s gathering will bring participants from across the state to share a traditional meal and present them with gifts and portraits created during the workshops.
Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj (b. 1993) was born in Thailand and immigrated to the United States in 1993 as a Hmong refugee of the Vietnam War. Working primarily in metals, jewelry, adornment, and textiles, he explores cultural identity, assimilation, colonization, and migration through the lens of his Hmong American experience.
DesertArtLAB (April Bojorquez & Matt Garcia)
Pueblo, Colorado
June 18, 2027
Desert Art Lab’s gathering is part of a decade-long desert revitalization project. Beginning in summer 2026, Desert Art Lab will prepare for their assembly by planting, tending, harvesting, preserving, learning, and cooking with place-based ingredients. Grounded in a community-investment model, the year-long process will culminate in a communal meal at Desert Art Lab’s field site.
Desert Art Lab is the collaborative practice of April Bojorquez (b. 1981) and Matt Garcia (b. 1980). Bojorquez and Garcia are both 2016 Creative Capital awardees in Emerging Fields, and their work explores place, identity, native ecology, and new models for cultural knowledge and exchange.
Marie Watt & Jeanette Jemison
Haudenosaunee Territory, Victor, New York
July 2027
Marie Watt’s gathering builds on community conversations around Turtle Island, a teaching central to the creation story and cosmology of the Haudenosaunee in partnership with Ganondagan and the White Corn Project. Marie is collaborating with Jeanette Jemison, Mohawk, of the Snipe Clan.
Marie Watt (b. 1967) is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians whose interdisciplinary practice draws on Haudenosaunee teachings, community, and storytelling. Working across printmaking, painting, textiles, and sculpture, she creates multigenerational spaces for dialogue through sewing circles, community-built sculptures, and crowd-sourced participation.
About Why We Gather
Why We Gather is a yearlong series of artist-led gatherings taking place across twelve rural communities in the United States between August 2026 and July 2027. Initiated by artists with deep roots and longstanding relationships in the places where they work, the project uses hosting and gifting as artistic frameworks for bringing people together through shared meals, storytelling, collective making, and cultural exchange. Timed to the nation’s 250th anniversary, Why We Gather creates a mosaic portrait of the United States through gatherings shaped by regional foodways, cultural traditions, and community priorities. By supporting artists, commissioning local makers, and investing in community-based cultural programming, the project expands access to meaningful cultural experiences while strengthening local creative economies and fostering dialogue, connection, and civic participation.
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Media contact
Resnicow and Associates
Ilana Rubin / Julia Exelbert / Emma Frohardt / Catherine Sorrentino
WhyWeGather@resnicow.com
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