RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is a public awareness campaign conceptualized by artist Carrie Mae Weems to underscore the impact of COVID-19, especially on communities of color. At a time of a time of rampant distrust, widespread inequity, and racial injustice across the US, Weems’ powerful photographs and text are designed to encourage public discussion, to emphasize protective and preventative measures, to celebrate essential workers, and to offer hope and inspiration. TAKE 6! refers to the recommended six feet of separation in social distancing.
Internationally renowned, Weems uses a range of mediums in her work—including photography, video, digital imagery, text, fabric, and more—to explore intersecting themes of sexism, class, race, family and community, and the consequences of power. Her artistic practice, with its insistence on both technical achievement and radical empathy, creates space for community dialogue and catalytic social engagement.
The TAKE 6! Initiative is being activated at sites across Boston this month—with a large billboard display and posters at the Huntington Avenue façade of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and posters and marquee displays at the Paramount and Cutler Majestic Theaters. Installations are planned for building facades in Mission Hill, at the Mattapan Community Health Center, on construction fencing and building windows at Uphams Corner, and at the Egleston Square and Uphams Corner Branch Libraries. Additional sites are anticipated.
RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! is an initiative of Carrie Mae Weems Social Studies 101, with producing collaborators, THE OFFICE performing arts + film. The Shah Family Foundation has generously provided critical funding to bring the project to Boston and is also supporting installations at the MFA and in Dorchester and Mattapan. Other presenting partners include Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Mission Hill Main Streets, Arts Emerson, and GBH.
In addition to Boston, the project has been activated in more than a dozen cities nationwide including New York, Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Savannah, Atlanta, Portland, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
