Each summer, AcA invites artists from across the region to submit works in response to a shared theme. This year’s exhibition was juried by curator & writer Amy Mackie, who tasked artists to consider, “What if the point of life is to be untethered, to be without direction or reason? Can we imagine another way of being, another way to feel free?”

Through a wide range of mediums including painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography, artists responded to this prompt. Twenty four artists were selected for inclusion from over ninety artists submissions.

The show’s curator Amy Mackie reflected, “Our post-pandemic planet, rife with political, environmental, and economic uncertainty, has left many creative people adrift. Despair, loneliness, grief, and instability are themes that surface repeatedly in this exhibition. But there is also joy and wonder in the wide-open spaces of the human psyche, allowing renewed energy to spring forth.”

Amy Mackie is a curator, educator, pianist, and writer based in New Orleans. She was Director of PARSE NOLA, a curatorial and research-based residency and art program, as well as Director of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and Curatorial Associate at the New Museum in New York. She has lectured at Bard College, Brooklyn College, the College of Charleston, and Yale University, and has written for Art in America, Art Papers, FANTOM Photographic Quarterly, Pelican Bomb, Temporary Art Review, and Universes in Universe. Mackie holds an MA in curatorial studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and a BA in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently working on a novel.