Hope drives us to imagine, represent, and create new worlds—or simply survive the one we currently inhabit. Often associated with naiveté and unrealizable solutions, hope can also be a driving force for real change and meaningful engagement with the world. Especially today, with the groundswell of anti-racist activism born in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the far-reaching impact of COVID-19, and the largest economic downturn in modern history, hope seems more important than ever.

After Hope brings together artists, scholars, curators, and activists for an interdisciplinary and critical examination of hope’s potential to animate form, method, and action. The prompt to think “after” addresses the complex ways hope affects our vision for the future and judgment of the past, asking both what it means to go after hope, and what comes after hope.