Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice
Founder: Dr. María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair Professor of Fine Arts and Artist
The Engine for Art, Democracy, and Justice is a trans-institutional research initiative, and it is an ongoing collaboration between Fisk University, the Frist Art Museum, Millions of Conversations, and Vanderbilt University that explores creative approaches to living together in the South(s)!
The 2024–2025 Public Programs and Engagement Series of the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ) at Vanderbilt University is organized around the thematic north star — Somewhere We Are Human — a collective vision for a time and space where no one’s humanity is ever in question. For Fall 2024, the series looks at the city of Nashville and the American South through a lens of migration, exploring the ways immigrant communities have shaped the region’s history and are envisioning its future through art and activism.
Somewhere We Are Human is conceived and organized by Curator Grace Aneiza Ali with the leadership of Professor María Magdalena Campos-Pons, EADJ Founder and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair & Professor of Art, with support from the EADJ Team.
The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ) at Vanderbilt University will host the thematic exhibition — Prefabricating Solidarity: IMS-Žeželj Between Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Angola. The exhibition is scheduled to be on view at EADJ’s Begonia Labs from August 21, 2025 – November 8, 2025.
Prefabricating Solidarity was conceived and organized by a collaborative curatorial and authorial team, including Vladimir Kulić, Vesna Pavlović, Jelica Jovanović, Fredo Rivera, Ana Knežević, Emilia Epštajn.
Jeannette Ehlers performance We’re Magic. We’re Real (These Walls) at Fisk University, part of EADJ’s Fall 2022 academic programming. The program of events for the semester was centered around the theme “Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance” authored between curator Selene Wendt and María Magdalena Campos-Pons. The program presented a set of vibrant discussions and artist activations that examined the consequences of social and historical inequities on the southern imaginary, as seen in art from Africa, Latin America, South Europe, South Asia, and the American South.
We’re Still Thinking is a Vanderbilt student-led immersion project highlighting Blackness behind and in front of the camera through photoshoots. The project was created by Vanderbilt students Jeanne d’Arc Koffi, Igolo Stephine Ohalete, Les Taylor, and Sydney Featherstone. These students were mentored by a local photographer (LeXander Bryant), advised by the EADJ team on the Vanderbilt campus, and organized many volunteer models to capture a series of photographs.The pictures collectively share intimate portraits around themes like dorm life on the Vanderbilt campus for queer BIPOC students, dorm life for first-generation Americans, reflections on Black womanhood, and reflections on friendship and coupling.
We’re Still Thinking was part of the Spring 2024 exhibitions at EADJ’s Begonia Labs.
Michelle Eistrup’s DIKENGA – Four Faces of the Sun was a large-scale outdoor video installation at Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library. It was a richly layered work centered around the ideology and symbolism of the Bakongo religion and the Kongo cosmogram, known as Dikenga.
It was part of EADJ’s “Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance” academic program, authored between EADJ curator Selene Wendt and EADJ Founder, María Magdalena Campos-Pons.
EADJ GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE FOLLOWING SPONSORS AND PARTNERS:
College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University
Department of Art, Vanderbilt University
The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy
Arts Administration Incubator Program
Department of History of Art and Architecture, Vanderbilt University
Cultural Contexts of Health and Wellbeing Initiative, Vanderbilt University
Jodi & Hal Hess
Joseph S. Freeman
E Pluribus Unum Foundation