We Are This Land: Meditations on the Great American Experiment

About the Exhibition

How can we learn from the past to better envision brighter futures for all?

With time comes perspective. The year 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This act marked the founding of the United States of America on July 4, 1776. These historical junctures offer timely opportunities for both reflection and future visioning. Such is the case now, when questions concerning the role of history and the future of the United States are at the forefront of many people’s minds. How can we look to and learn from artists in moments like these?

We Are This Land: Meditations on the Great American Experiment is a large-scale group exhibition that occupies the main galleries of the MSU Broad Art Museum. Five guiding topics help organize the exhibition: civics, history, family and kinship, map-making, and care for the environment. This approach creates a forum for open dialogue and engagement. It also offers critical perspectives on our nation’s place within broader historical timelines and the wider world. We Are This Land, the exhibition’s main title, introduces this idea. With it, emphasis is placed on the notion that “we,” collectively, define this place. It also asserts that our relationship to this place must be grounded in careful consideration of the land we occupy and help steward. The title itself is a direct quote from “Bless this Land,” a 2019 poem by former US poet laureate and Indigenous activist Joy Harjo, an important influence on the exhibition.

Guided by the American democratic ideals of participation and experimentation, We Are This Land offers many different prompts for visitors to consider their own role in these conversations. Programmatic offerings reaffirm the museum as an inclusive public space. We invite audiences to participate and contribute their voices and perspectives. Looking to the past, and being in the present, what new ways of imagining the future emerge?

Artists: Artists once known, Shuvinai Ashoona, Don Baum, William J. Beal, Romare Bearden, Albert Bierstadt, Sanford Biggers, Sando Birk, Margaret Burroughs, Frank Casarra, Elizabeth Catlett, Raven Chacon, Mel Chin, Bethany Collins, Vincenzo Coronelli, Ralston Crawford, Currier & Ives, Bruce Davidson, Jess Dugan, Walker Evans, John Farmer, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Carl H. Frezell, Meschac Gaba, Nicholas Galanin, Ewing Galloway Inc., Tyree Guyton, John Halaka, W. E. Hook, Henry Horenstein, Candace Hunter, Irene Gayas Jungwirth, Dorothea Lange, Rodrigo Lara, Russell Lee, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Phillip Andrew Lewis and Lenka Clayton, Duane Linklater, Phillip Lindsay Mason, Tony Matelli, Carolyn Mazloomi, Julie Mehretu, Dylan AT Miner and Oscar Tuazon, M. M. Mudge, Alice Neel, Gladys Nilsson, Laura Parkey, Claire Pentecost, John Pfahl, Fairfield Porter, Sarah Rahbar, Abraham Rattner, Louis Raynor, Julia Retz, Faith Ringgold, Amber Robles-Gordon, Evan Roth, Arthur Rothstein, Alison Saar, Christine Saari, Tylonn J. Sawyer, Camille Seaman, Theresa Shellcroft, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Alfred Stieglitz, Stephanie Syjuco, Rayanne Tabet, Rodney Taylor, James Van Der Zee, Kara Walker, Yvonne Walker Keshick, Kay WalkingStick, Nari Ward, Emil Weddige, Rose Willia

We Are This Land: Meditations on the Great American Experiment is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and curated by Steven L. Bridges, senior curator and director of curatorial affairs, with Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez and Rachel Winter, assistant curators, and Morgan Braswell and Nat Swartz, curatorial research assistants. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Endowed Exhibitions Fund, with additional support provided by the Alan and Rebecca Ross Endowed Exhibitions Fund.