Driskell Center Exhibition Marks Nation’s 250th by Reflecting on Its Flag

A new exhibition from the University of Maryland’s David C. Driskell Center timed to coincide with the United States’ 250th anniversary has received a $100,000 grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

“America Will Be!,” open Feb. 9-May 8, presents artworks that critically engage the image and symbolism of the U.S. flag, inviting audiences to reflect on ongoing struggles over democracy, citizenship and belonging in the United States. Across sculpture, textiles, photography and beyond, the exhibition explores how contemporary artists have responded to the nation’s contradictions, failures and possibilities. 

Jordana Moore Saggese, professor of art history and archaeology and director of the Driskell Center, co-curated the exhibition with Nicole Archer of Montclair State University. The works were brought together, Saggese said, “to help visitors grapple with this country’s complex past, while also making space to imagine what could come next.”

“We hope people see ways to confront the country's ugliest realities while following the lead of the exhibition’s artists who are staking a claim on the beauty that simultaneously flourishes in our communities, our crafts, our creative expressions and our solidarity with those who are most marginalized,” she said.

Terra Foundation support is funding exhibition planning and implementation, accessibility measures including bilingual and large-print materials, digital documentation of the installation, and the production of a scholarly catalog that will extend the exhibition’s impact beyond its physical run. Additional support came from UMD’s Arts for All initiative and the Maryland State Arts Council. 

“America Will Be!” brings together 23 artworks, objects and documents created across generations and regions of the United States, many of which are rarely shown together. Saggese said the exhibition reflects David C. Driskell’s lifelong insistence that “the story of American art is incomplete without all voices.” Driskell, who died in 2020, was a UMD Distinguished University professor of art, as well as a celebrated artist and curator. 

Highlights include David Hammons’ “African American Flag” (1990), which reimagines the stars and stripes in the colors of Pan-African unity; June Edmonds’ “Four Years in the White House Flag” (2019-21), created in reference to Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman who became dressmaker and assistant to U.S. first lady Mary Todd Lincoln; and Hank Willis Thomas’ “14,719” (2018), a monumental textile installation in which each embroidered star represents a person shot and killed in the United States that year.

Loaned works are presented alongside works from the Driskell Center’s permanent collection, including Faith Ringgold’s “Declaration of Freedom and Independence” (2009), part of her celebrated print portfolio that reframes founding documents through a Black feminist lens. 

The exhibition also incorporates historical flags, archival materials and elements of popular visual culture to provide broader context around longer histories of Black experience, labor and political resistance in the United States. It introduces audiences to both canonical figures and emerging or regionally based artists.

Launching during both the nation’s semiquincentennial and the Driskell Center’s 25th anniversary, “America Will Be!” is designed as both a visual experience and a catalyst for civic dialogue, supported by artist talks, panel discussions, performances and community engagement programs developed in partnership with University of Maryland departments and local schools.