TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
Museum of Texas Tech and Landmark Arts
Present:
Freeing the West: A Conversation About Participatory Social Art
and the Practice of Law
With artist Gregory Sale (Phoenix, Arizona) and attorney Jeff Blackburn (Amarillo, Texas)
The harsh punitive streak through the American criminal justice system has deep roots in the American West. From
their vantage points in Texas and Arizona, Blackburn and Sale will consider how entrenched cultural beliefs can give
way to transformative social change. These beliefs are often communicated through images as representations
captured by the legal system and the media. As images, they intersect with the arts and impact social
understanding. After their presentations, audience participants will be invited to explore possible parallels and
intersections of aesthetic practice and social justice.
This event merges the forms of a conference session, an open-ended encounter, and a performative artistic
experience. It is part of Just Not Yet: Dodging the Vacuum of Meaning a group exhibition curated by Peter Briggs at
Landmark Arts in conjunction with the 47th Annual Conference of the Western Literature Association.
Photograph courtesy of Stephen Gittins.
Gregory Sale’s It’s all not just black and white project at Arizona State University Art Museum in 2011 engaged community
members including the Maricopa County Jail inmates pictured.
Saturday, November
10th
2:30 – 4:00pm
Helen Devitt Jones
Auditorium
of the
Museum of Texas Tech
University
3301 4th St. Lubbock, TX
Reception in the Museum
Sculpture Court to follow.
Photograph courtesy of Stephen Gittins
Gregory Sale’s It’s all not just black and white project at Arizona State University Art Museum in 2011 engaged
community members including the Maricopa County Jail inmates pictured.
Western Literature Association
Free and open to the
public.
http://www.usu.edu/westlit/