RESIST COVID / TAKE 6!

About

The Nasher Museum is collaborating with Duke Arts and Duke Health to present an unprecedented outdoor exhibition and public awareness campaign by nationally renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems. The project, called RESIST COVID / TAKE 6!, emphasizes the disproportionate impact of the deadly virus on the lives of communities of color, through large-scale banners and window clings, posters, street signs and more.

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! will be a catalyst for discussions within and beyond the Duke community. The project helps to combat misperceptions about the COVID-19 virus, celebrates front line workers, raises issues of public health and racial inequities, and underscores how art can function as a public awareness campaign.
Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum, facing Anderson Street. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum, facing Anderson Street. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window clings at the Nasher Museum, facing the Sculpture Garden and Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window cling at the Rubenstein Arts Center, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window cling at the Rubenstein Arts Center, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! street pole banner at the Nasher Museum, facing Duke University Road. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! street pole banner at the Nasher Museum, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! street pole banner facing Campus Drive at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner on the Nasher Museum faces a pair of RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! street pole banners on Anderson Street. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Carpentry Shop, home of the MFA / EDA program, adjacent to Smith Warehouse. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner on the iron gates at Duke Gardens. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems.
RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window clings at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window cling at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window cling at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
Twilight view of the Nasher's sculpture garden and a RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! banner at the Nasher Museum. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Robert Zimmerman.
A Resist Covid / Take 6! billboard in Durham, NC. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
Resist Covid / Take 6! street pole banners line Campus Drive connecting Duke’s east and west campuses. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Myra Weise.
Resist Covid / Take 6! street pole banner lining Campus Drive connecting Duke’s east and west campuses. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
Resist Covid / Take 6! street pole banner lining Campus Drive connecting Duke’s east and west campuses. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
A series of RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window clings lining the Rubenstein Arts Center building, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
A series of RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window clings lining the Rubenstein Arts Center building, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
A series of RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window clings lining the Rubenstein Arts Center building, facing Campus Drive. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
Wheat paste posters from Resist Covid / Take 6! at the "free expression tunnel" on Duke University's East Campus. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by Wendy Hower.
Wheat paste posters and a banner from Resist Covid / Take 6! are on view at the Carpentry Shop, home of the MFA / EDA program. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window cling on the American Dance Festival (ADF) building on Broad Street in Durham. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window banner on the Durham Station. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! window banner on the Durham Station. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
A Resist Covid / Take 6! billboard in Durham along highway 147. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
Resist Covid / Take 6! window banner at Durham Technical Community College. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.
Resist Covid / Take 6! window banner at the Stanford L. Warren branch of the Durham Library. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. Photo by J Caldwell.

VIDEO FROM OVERHEAD:
RESIST COVID / TAKE 6!

The exterior walls of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and Rubenstein Arts Center form a huge outdoor gallery for the RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! exhibition by artist Carrie Mae Weems. Drone footage by Chip Bobbert.

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6!
Map of Outdoor Exhibition on Duke Campus

Explore the Exhibition

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! allows Duke to present an impactful outdoor art experience safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Campus partners are planning programs around this project. Duke faculty including Mark Anthony Neal, Tommy DeFrantz and Phyllis Dooney are engaging their students in RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! projects.

Resist Covid! / Take 6! window cling Durham Station. Photo by J Caldwell.

Community Partners

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! has extended into the surrounding community. Posters and yard signs were made available to all partners. The project was installed at the American Dance Festival’s Samuel H. Scripps Studios, a Durham Freeway billboard, Durham Technical Community College, the Durham Station (GoTriangle), the Fruit, GoTriangle buses, Lakewood Shopping Center and the Stanford L. Warren Branch library.

YOUR STORIES MATTER

We invite you to speak your own truth. How have your life, your family, your hopes and fears transformed since the start of this global pandemic?

SPEAK UP & RESPOND

A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster in a subway station. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems.

In the guise of a marketing campaign, this artwork fights two viruses, COVID-19 and systemic racism.
John Brown, Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke

A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems.

Campus Awareness

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! has taken shape on the exterior walls and windows of the Nasher Museum and Rubenstein Arts Center. The installation expanded along the length of the Arts Corridor, from the Sarah P. Duke Gardens gate to Campus Drive street pole banners to the Carpentry Shop (home of the MFA EDA program).

Duke Class Experiences an Outdoor Exhibition

VIEW PHOTO ESSAY

At Duke Health, we’ve been privileged to care for our community through unprecedented times, and we have seen firsthand the disproportionate effect that COVID-19 has had on frontline workers throughout our state. We are proud to partner with the Nasher and Duke Arts to present this powerful work by Carrie Mae Weems, which shines a light on these essential and valued members of our community.
A. Eugene Washington, M.D., Chancellor for Health Affairs, Duke University, President and CEO, DUHS

Social Studies 101:
A Carrie Mae Weems Project

SOCIALSTUDIES.ORG

The Artist

The Nasher Museum has a long history and strong relationship with artist Carrie Mae Weems, whose work is part of the museum’s collection.

Widely renowned as one of the most influential living American artists, Weems examines how our society structures power through deeply embedded stories, images and ideas. A gifted storyteller who works porously between text and image, Weems has developed a revolutionary approach to the expression of narratives about women, people of color and working-class communities, “conjuring lush art from the arid polemics of identity” (The New York Times). With a complex body of work encompassing photography, text, fabric, audio, digital image, installation, performance, and video, Weems’s work asks us to look deeply at the two-dimensional image, to explore complex realities and revisit unexamined perspectives.

Weems has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at major national and international museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Frist Center for Visual Art, Nashville; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain. Weems has received numerous awards and honors, including the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the U.S. Department of State Inaugural Medal of Arts, BET Honors Visual Artist Award, and W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University. She is represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Tate Modern, London. Weems resides in Syracuse and Brooklyn, New York. She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery.

In the News: Harper's Bazaar

Artist Carrie Mae Weems, “COVID-19 Is Not an Equal Opportunity Virus”

Her RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! public awareness campaign aims to get information into the hands of those most impacted.

A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! poster on the sidewalk. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.
A series of RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! posters. Courtesy of Carrie Mae Weems. RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film.

Make the Most of Your Outdoor Visit

Visitors are welcome to view RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! in person from the safety of public sidewalks and pathways around the outside of the Nasher Museum and Rubenstein Arts Center, located at Campus Drive and Anderson Street. The project can also be viewed safely by car on Anderson Street, a public city street.

Follow all Duke United guidelines
Wear a mask at all times
Keep a safe distance of six feet from others

The Nasher Museum, in keeping with Duke University’s campus-wide health and safety measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, will remain closed through the summer. All public in-person events and tours have been cancelled.

Credits

RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is led by MacArthur winning artist Carrie Mae Weems’ Social Studies 101 in association with Pierre Loving and THE OFFICE performing arts + film. Carrie Mae Weems is currently the artist-in-residence at Syracuse University.

At Duke, RESIST COVID / TAKE 6! is co-presented by the Nasher Museum, Duke Arts and Duke Health.

At the Nasher Museum, the exhibition is made possible by The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; Thomas S. Kenan, III; Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation; the Lyna J. Rogers Fund; and Ann and Rhodes Craver.

Art Distribution Partners: The Beautiful Project, BlackSpace, Chet Miller, Durham Children’s Initiative, Durham Co-op Market, Durham County Library, Durham Chapter of the Links, Durham Office on Youth, Kids Voting Durham , iNSIDEoUT , North Carolina Central University , Pauli Murray Center , Student U , Walltown Recreation Center Mature Adults Program .