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Okay, there we go.

I love this one.

It goes down here.

You could put Esterly
on this wall.

Yep.

Sticky.

♪

♪

DON BACIGALUPI:
Among the conventional wisdoms

about contemporary art,

there is a, a notion

that it's only being made
in New York and L.A.

and maybe a couple
of other major urban centers.

But art is being made
everywhere.

It always has been.

There are vibrant communities
across this country

that give rise to incredible
works of art,

some of which go
completely unseen

by the art world.

♪

Where are we, Chad?

-Carthage, Mississippi.
-Mississippi.

♪

Chad, where are you?

- Ah, as best I can tell,
we're in Baltimore.

Look how colorful
everything is.

CHAD:
We went off the map entirely.

And we did that week to week,
back to back, month to month,

for ten months to bring
contemporary art to life again.

Looks at this!

What I'm here for is to hear
from you

what your perspective is

on your work.
- Okay.

We'd knock at a door,
hoping it was the right door,

never knowing
what we were to expect.

I mean, literally,
it was like Mystery Date.

- Thanks.
- Look at this, huh?

Our idea was to go out
on the road,

to meet with a thousand
contemporary artists,

and to go
into all of the communities

that make the United States
what it is.

And what we found was amazing.

♪

♪

We were so far

from the beaten path
of the art world.

We were almost never
in major urban centers

where you expect artists
to work.

We were, in contrasting fashion,
in places

where most people would think
art is not being made,

but in fact it is.

Is this what you would
call your studio?

PETER OAKLEY:
Such as it is, yeah.

My main project right now.

That's my model.
Uh-huh.

PETER:
It's a diesel engine.

I had been working on it
upside down right here.

It was flipped over in the dirt.
Mm-hmm.

And I was cutting flat planes

on the bottom of this boulder,
and so this circle here

is going to be the oil cap.
Mm-hmm.

- Sits on the top.
- Yeah.

PETER:
And this was state of the art.

This is my little...

you can see the progress so far.

CHAD:
That is remarkable.

So there's this ongoing series.

Hopefully this will be
the last one,

these Styrofoam takeout boxes
in marble.

The thing is, the
form is pretty nice to look at.

And, um, so
what I'm trying to do with it

is kind of what I try to do
with everything.

There's enough to think about

that you get lost in the process
thinking about it,

and the next thing you know,
you find yourself, like,

staring at
a Styrofoam takeout box

as a visual experience.

And, for me,
that's what I'm going for.

So the thing I like about the,
you know, the stack,

these things are kind of,
you know,

they're kind of generic.

They stack correctly like that.

But the way people interact
with these things

is often not the way they were
intended to be interacted with.

And a lot of times you see them
stacked wrong,

like in the back of the house
in restaurants and stuff.

So, um, that human interaction
with this generic object

gives it
this interesting composition.

Like, it, it starts to be
something that it never was.

You know, even though
I use some power tools

when I'm roughing
the sculptures out,

I still work by hand,
and I work by myself.

I don't use, I don't even use
studio assistants.

A lot of the tools are
real specialized.

These are the real,
real sculpture tools.

But this is a Sawzall blade
in a regular handle.

It's... carbide's designed
for cutting cast iron,

but it works pretty well
on stone.

So I live in this, I live
in this small town here,

and there's not a sculpture
supply house, like, anywhere,

so I just get stuff
from the building supply.

These are just regular files
from there.

It's fine.

Power windows.

Sunroof.

There's an unknown number
of miles on it.

The odometer quit working
about ten years ago at 204,000.

In there.

They were one of the last cars
that were manufactured

without computers in them.

So, I mean, this car,

you could literally, like, take
the battery out of it right now

and chuck it in a ditch,

and it would still run,

like,
with no electricity at all.

Not only does this car function
without computers,

but it was designed
and built without computers.

It gets beautiful here
and everything,

but mainly it's cheap.

I can work here

and not have to worry
about money, you know?

I'll be in my studio,
not talking to any other people

for maybe a couple of weeks.

There's no distractions at all.

Let's see if she can make it.

I think she's going to do it.

:
Good girl, Sonya.

Oh.

Good girl, Sonya.

Oh, no; oh, no.

I should go rescue her.

She's going to go
down the waterfall.

She can make it, though,
she'll be all right.

Good girl, Sonya.

Good girl, Sonya,
good girl, Sonya.

Good girl, Sonya.

She's a really good swimmer,

but that was,
that was crazy, wasn't it?

♪

♪

♪

SUSIE LEE:
Unlike every other state

that was really suffering
from the 2008 recession,

North Dakota was experiencing
a boom because of fracking.

And this was my hometown
from eight years to 18,

and I had been away
for about 20 years.

So these small towns
that I remember

from, like, speech
and debate tournaments

suddenly were overrun 24-seven

with oil trucks
and tankers nonstop.

I was curious, especially,

about the people who had lost
everything in the recession

and left
to start their lives over again.

So we would create
video portraits,

and all I asked them to do was
just to sit for a moment.

This guy in particular,
his name is Johnny,

and he's sort of
this complicated guy,

where you'll look at him,
and you're like,

"Is he challenging me?

"Is he smirking?

I don't really know."

But what I hope you can do
when you see them is

that you'll get a sense of,
like, not only who they are,

but you'll be like,
"Wait a second.

I kind of know somebody
like that."

And, for me, the idea was to try
and draw the audience

into their space.

When the exhibition went up,

I invited all of the people
that I had spoken to,

and none of them could come.

And if you think about it,

what are the typical
museum hours?

It's 11:00 to 5:00,
Tuesday through Saturday.

This was not accessible to them.

Art needs to be accessible

to not only the elite,
the one percent,

but to a much wider audience.

Who is that?

My parents decided to move
to North Dakota

when I was eight,

and I wanted to have
Princess Diana hair.

And, I was so confused,
because I didn't understand

why my hair didn't look
like her hair,

and it didn't occur to me,
and no one ever said anything

like, "Well, Asian hair actually
intrinsically

is, like, a different quality
than British hair."

So...

This was
from the local newspaper,

because I was the
youngest female black belt, um,

in the state at the time.

There weren't such things
as kids' classes,

and so we were just held
to a standard that was, like,

"Well, you can do absolutely
what any guy can do."

But not only that, you know,

"Physically, you need to be able
to compete with them

"and to be able to fight them

and show a certain kind
of courage."

But it also meant
that we didn't fear men.

So actually this picture is from
the U.S. National Championships.

Let's see,
somebody one time kicked me

and dislocated my shoulder.

Um, I got punched in the nose,

and, like, blood was pouring
out.

And I think
that's part of the reason

why, like, when I went
into the fracking fields,

it never occurred to me that

as a woman,
I might not want to do this

or that I would feel unsafe
about it.

So I think in that way,
it affected the kind of ways

that I project myself
into the world.

When you get knocked down,

which obviously you do
as a creative person, um,

you always have to get up,
and that, you know,

no one else is going to
necessarily help you get up,

so, you know, you, you do it.

He's getting more and more
comfortable with his life.

Or lazy, I'm not sure which.

There's something right now
going on

that's, like, something in tune.

I feel like we all need to take
a break or something.

Whoo, okay, see?

Unintentionally matchy-matchy.

Come on.

Asa, let's go.

Come on.

Wait, did I bring a diaper bag?

No.

So, now we have a clock,
because at some point,

she's going to have
an explosion,

and we're going to have to go
back.

So, that's...
you'll, you'll be the mime.

Let's say you're here,
just to at least...

And then... pretend
this is underneath.

Right.
- Mm-hmm.

- So, however this starts,
begin, wherever,

you're, duh-duh-duh, right?

And then at some point,
he gets into the bed.

- Mm-hmm.
- Right.

:
I have this new project

where we're working with a mime

to interpret
these Chinese poems.

And this isn't, like,
the kind of Barney stuff

or, like,
super-educational things

that we see in the U.S.

This was actually a lot
of contemporary artworks

that two-year-olds
and three-year-olds

could actually really
understand.

♪

:
Touch it, touch it.

Touch it, see.

♪

This child will change the way
that I make work,

and this child will change the
way that I look at the world.

When you're feeding her,
or when you're looking at her,

is there something
about those moments

that actually inspire
a certain kind of creativity?

I think yes,
there absolutely is.

♪

:
Okay.

Okay, all right.

I think we're done.
- Yeah.

♪

One of the themes
in "State of the Art" was

if we could get out
and see truly

where artists are making
their work,

we would have a much broader,
a much more accurate picture

of what's actually happening
in contemporary art.

So we felt it was important

to bypass the usual structures
of the art world

and go everywhere.

The process of being
on the road was exhilarating--

the Wichitas and the Pittsburghs
and the Cincinnatis

and the texture of New Orleans.

Carl Joe is a musician
himself.

So he plays jazz,

he composes music,

and he's also looking
to the texture of New Orleans

as inspiration for his work.

♪

♪

Whoa!

There's a boat going.
We're on.

Art for poor people
is not accessible.

So when you have public art,
you can engage

from the poorest, youngest,
to the oldest.

I mean,
it's like everybody's involved.

And, you know, for that reason,

I think it's extremely
important.

♪

I look at that water, and
I see those concentric circles,

and I think about my work.

:
You know?

Um, because of...
I think it's beautiful.

I love the way water looks
and reacts

to, um, any kind of tension,
you know?

♪

I guess I'm really interested
in trying to tell the stories

of, of average,
everyday Americans.

Um... working,

and, uh... working,
making a living,

trying to survive.

And it's important to me

that people who might not go
to museums and galleries

actually have some kind
of connection to the work.

That's important to me.

:
Oh, that's magnificent.

CARL JOE:
So, "The Gift,"

which was a piece
in the exhibition,

I took a small snippet
from an old TV show

called "Sanford and Son."

Grady, he bought a painting

of a naked black woman
on velvet canvas.

They absolutely hated
the painting.

What do you think, huh?

Huh?
- Well, uh...

But because they loved him,

they kept that painting up,
right?

And it appealed to me,

because it was tapping
into all the anxieties

that I had about my work

at the time.

I found out--
and this is through

talking to a lot of other
African American artists--

that there is a certain level
of anxiety

about actually making art.

That's why that clip is used,

because it opens up
all of those questions

as to who's judging who's right
and who's wrong, um,

you know
with something like art.

It's tasteless.

It's the worst combination
of colors I've ever seen.

- You should be used to that.

♪

I don't think
there's any precedent

for the scale of what we did.

But while we were
in New Orleans,

and I had a bit of a meltdown
when I realized

we weren't going to be able to
get everywhere.

Time was short.

We were running out of time.

There were some parts
of the country

we simply weren't going to have
time to get to.

And it was a bit
of a panic moment for me

when I realized
we weren't going to accomplish

what I had visualized,

which was literally going
everywhere.

♪

Here she comes.

Don't forget to steer.

- Don't, yeah, definitely.
- Put your feet on the pedals.

- Feet on the pedals,
there you go.

Don't forget to steer.

Go, go, go.
- Whoa!

Steer towards... no,
to your left,

to your left.

No.

- No?
- No?

LINDA:
Yeah.

There we go, whee!

Are you going to ring your bell?

There you go.

I think I'll just wipe it down
and then put black on it.

It turns, it turns out
like this.

Because it... it doesn't really
quite cover up that red clay,

but I think if I can get it
on there evenly...

it just turns shiny.

- That's over that clay.
- Yeah.

- Whoa.

Try it, it's kind of wild.
Okay.

MATTHEW:
Yeah, give it a shot.

I think
that black's going to be great.

- Yeah, I think
it's going to work.

LINDA:
Do not grab it by a rock.

Yeah, one, two, three.

Here?
I got it.

Okay.

Tell me when. Good, here?

Coming down?
Down.

Slow, you've got an inch.

There you go.

All right.
- Cool.

A finger fell?
- Yeah.

Yeah, but that...
that was in travel.

Smooth.

I'll just get it right in there,
yup.

We're good.
Oh, there it is.

Oh, this is so exciting.

Like, seeing all of this
being put together.

This is a really different
surface for me,

so I go through waves
of not liking it,

and liking it.

I don't really know yet.

I like this.

I'm good with this.

LINDA:
Mindy is my gallerist.

You want to try
one more time?

And my husband,
Matthew McConnell,

who I trust so much.

They're just arranging work
for me

while I try to get this piece
set up.

This piece is, like,
very specifically

how do I understand, um,
time within my lifespan

and beyond and before.

It's scary putting
something, like, so personal out

into the world.

My family in Vietnam still live
on this same plot of land

that my mother grew up on.

You know, their neighborhood
would get attacked,

and they would,
they would actually just crawl

under their crawlspace
under their house

and just continue to live.

I mean, it's just so scary.

So scary to think about that.

♪

So I don't know much
about my mom's story.

It may be a sensitive subject
for her to talk about.

She came here during the
Vietnam War on a freedom flight.

A few years later after that,
you know, she met my father.

I don't know his background

previous to his life
in the United States.

He came from Mexico.

He came in his early 20s.

He picked oranges

for pretty much most
of my childhood.

My parents didn't tell me a lot

about their family,
their cultures,

it was all about becoming
an American

and living this American life.

I didn't have a lot
of cultural identity.

And it's strange to think
that I had a difficult time,

you know, kind of trying to be
an American,

because I was born in America.

Una, if you mix blue and yellow,
you get, what color?

Green!

:
With Una,

I requested that my mother speak
Vietnamese to her.

This new body of work
with the rugs and the feet

and trying to understand
my identity

probably has to do a lot

with being able to give
my daughter this information

of who we are.

Mm-hmm.

We're hoping that she has
more of an understanding

of what our roots are.

I want her to be proud
of, of who she is.

♪

:
So that has, like, a clear glaze

and then a gold luster
on top of it.

♪

I'm still trying to understand
what I'm trying to say

with this new body of work
and this exploration

of what it means to be
Mexican and Vietnamese,

which maybe I don't know
if I'll ever understand.

♪

All the Navajos will laugh
at me.

They get a lot of food.

Way too much food.

They're fat, because Navajos
raise their sheep for...

and their goats for...
not as pets like that.

Like I treat them like a dog.

This one here is missing a leg.

The boy that sold us them,
when we asked him how much,

he said,
"Well, $40 on this one."

And he said,
"How about $30 on this one?"

:
So we got ten dollars off.

Yeah, my beautiful chickens,
gone.

The bobcat came,
and he killed them all,

didn't eat them

and then left them
in a big pile.

Babies that were born naturally,

not born in an incubator.

We're going to walk
through the snow

and go over to the garden.

Unusual amount of snow.

Underneath here.

Yeah, the economic crash
in the mid-2000s,

as artists, we were dependent
upon people's disposable income,

and when I realized that
that disposable income

was not happening
for those of us who make the art

and are reliant upon it, um,

that was one
of the major impulses

for growing this garden.

Having the chickens on hand

and being
a little more self-sufficient

and less reliant
upon the market economy.

And, uh, that's what
this was all a part of.

So far so good.

Look at it, it's snow time

and we still got carrots
in this garden.

I'll tell you this,
I'm a Westerner in the heart,

'cause this
doing-for-yourself thing,

this is the west all the way.

This is my Wyoming upbringing
right here.

All the Shoshone ladies I knew,
they went hunting,

killed their own animals.

Oh, yeah, I'm not going to get
a fire out of this.

Ooh, maybe,
here's some dry ones.

When I was little, my mother,

this is how she made her living,
was selling beadwork.

When we were little kids,

I have a very fond memory
of being in her closet.

She had all of her necklaces
hanging on one wall,

her beaded necklaces.

My sister and I would go
into the closet--

she had all her moccasins
stacked in there--

and we would turn off the light,

and we would smell the smell
of the smoked hide,

and we would feel
these cold beads.

This is the cradle board
that I came home in as a baby.

It's the cradle board my mother
and father had made for me.

So I was brought home encrusted
in beads.

Once one is made then it becomes
a part of your family's legacy.

So when I see them in a museum
or something like that,

it always makes me
a little bit sad,

because I realize
someone's family

lost their, their heirlooms.

Beads were brought over here
into the United States,

and they were given
as trade objects, right?

So...

and these same beads from
this same Preciosa manufacturer

get traded all over the planet.

So I just feel like
it's, it's something that...

it was taken by women,

and it was used
as a brand-new medium

to create a whole new language
of art.

And it's here,

and it came out of that colonial
stomping across the planet.

So these objects may have been
used to steal our land,

but in our hands,
it became something more.

This is my mother,
Jeri Ah-be-hill,

and myself as a baby.

My mother had a trading post
for over 30 years.

That's basically
where I grew up,

was inside that trading post.

Yeah, this is, like, pictures
of inside of her store.

Here's my mother
in a Shoshone dress.

Only $1,600
for that buckskin dress.

Classic.

Oh, here I am in the shop
with the mannequin.

And that was her office
back here.

So, in the store
I preferred being in the office

than out with the customers,

and doing paperwork,
office work,

and that kind of thing.

My mother in this big collection
of clothing that she had,

she would do style shows or
fashion shows she called them,

for these non-Native people,

these big white audiences.

But it was
her own personal collection.

It was all women's clothing,

and it was done on purpose,

because she saw
in the old museums

that most of what was focused on
was men's stuff.

And so she created a collection

to teach non-Native people about
the importance of Native women.

She's teaching
all these white people here

their own history.

Their own American history
they didn't know nothing about.

♪

Beadwork itself,

because it's been defined
as a female art form,

I have been fighting that fight
my entire career,

the tension
between fine art and craft.

Being included
in "State of the Art"

legitimized my medium.

Myself, as an artist,
I am happy for that.

I am honored by that.

But I am even more grateful

that the medium itself
was included

in the exhibition.

♪

JUSTIN FAVELA:
Let's set up the canopy

on the edge, and that's
where the grilling will be.

And then we'll have a,
two tables down here,

and then one table up here.
Okay.

I'll be the table that wants to
stay up here.

- And we look...
Options, you've got options.

-Oh, wow, nice.
-See.

-I like it.
-See, VIP.

You want to set up
right here?

-Drinks on me.
-All right.

♪

♪

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Hey, you pull, you pull.

One, two, three.

:
I'm not a very violent person,

so when I was a kid,
any time it was piñata time

at a birthday party,
I would hide.

So I've always had that
relationship with piñatas,

like, on a very personal level,
I hated piñatas.

It's this object
that we use to celebrate things,

at the same time, you know,
we destroy it.

I mean, that was
the first piñata I ever made

when I was in school.

And then I said, "That's it.

I'm not going to make
any more piñatas."

Like, "I don't want to be
the piñata guy," you know?

It's so easy.

It's so cheap.

And what am I doing?

I'm still making piñatas.

This is it,
this is how I'm going to do it.

One big knot.

I'm just going to tie it
like a shoe.

It's the only knot I know.
Right.

Damn.

♪ Solid as a rock.

This is great.

♪

Yup.

This work was a tribute
to Selena,

and I'm hoping to reuse
all these car parts,

like in a real chop shop,

and make other works
out of them.

There's a Selena song
about a car that breaks down.

Yeah.

Okay.

I, I think the show's done.

Now it's a hatchback.

- Boom.
- Oh, look, that's a hearse.

Both sides of my family
ended up in Las Vegas,

'cause of work opportunities.

My grandpa on my dad's side was
a farmer

for a while in California,

and eventually he got a gig
at the La Concha Motel here,

dishwashing.

I mean, a union job
with benefits.

Especially for Latinos,

it doesn't get any better
than that.

This is the pork belly.

I'm very excited about this,
you guys.

Okay, video.

Can I get it off the plate?

I've been really thinking
about my identity

as a Mexican-American.

Like, do I really like tacos,

or, or am I just supposed
to really like tacos?

Yes, I am Mexican,
I make piñatas,

and I love tacos.

In my artwork,
I feel like I take that,

and I just go with it
and exploit the hell out of it.

♪

The low rider represents Latinos
perfectly,

because the car is this
American symbol for progress.

For a Chicano to take that
symbol,

you know, bring it back to life,
make it their own, um,

and really tell their story
with it,

I think that's...

that's really,
that's really cool,

really important.

♪

Can everyone see
from where you're sitting?

Yes.

So Vanessa German lives
in Pittsburgh,

and she created these
power figures--

they're like dolls--

out of different objects.

Share with us some things
that you see

or some things that you think.

They all have weapons.
Okay.

So why do you think that

the artist has included weapons
on them?

- 'Cause she lives in a town
that is violent.

When we visited
Pittsburgh,

parts of the city have really,
you know, rallied and revived

in this sort
of post-industrial moment.

Homewood is not
one of those places.

VANESSA:
Here.

And do you need something to dry
the brushes off a little bit?

Yeah.

No.

DON:
As we were driving up,

we saw one house
was brightly colored

and signs in the yard
that said things like,

"Stop Shooting,
We Love You."

And we thought, "That's got
to be the artist's house.

Uh, they came to the house,

and one of them had
a video camera,

and one of them had a recorder.

And they were, like, "Well,
we want to talk about your work.

And I said, "What work?

"I... do you want me to perform
for you?

Or do you want to see
sculpture work?"

They were, like, "You perform?"

And I said, "Yeah."

She begins
this spoken-word performance

of this piece called,

"If My Hands Were Anything
Other Than Hands,"

that moved me to tears.

If my hands were anything
other than hands,

they would be two shooting stars

galloping light
across the galaxy.

They would be a twin fandango
of diamond-studded fingerprints

hopscotching a radiant,
neon merengue of light

from each folded velvet edge
of midnight

into every tidy galaxy
of 14-carat suns.

My shooting-star hands would
reach and leap and turn

the faces of every burning
celestial pedestrian star

raised and gazing, bright-eyed,
amazed, and awestruck

as my shooting-star hands went
by in a flurry of pirouettes,

spitting sparks
and spilling light

like each finger is
a silver Bic flip lighter,

flicking flames of hope
into the open faces

of those twinkling, pale,
and incandescent sisters

whose tears glisten
and litter the blistering avenue

like sequins.

Yeah, one of the reasons

why I started to make art
on my front porch

is 'cause the ceiling is so low
down here.

How long have you been
in Pittsburgh?

- 12 years.
- Oh.

- Watch yourself, please.

Just, some steps are smaller.
- Mm-hmm.

- So I take them apart,

and so these are metal stakes
go in there,

and they go down into there.

I'll reconfigure
the proportions,

and then I'll wrap
the whole doll like a mummy.

Then it becomes this hard form.

And so, this is a piece I did

after, uh,
Trayvon Martin was murdered.

And there was this period
of time

where people were, like,
"Well, he had a hoodie on.

"And, you know, he was walking
down the street,

and he should have known."

And I was, like, "Wait.

"Are you trying to say
that he deserved this?

And that he asked
for his death?"

And there was this period
of time where I just felt crazy,

because it was, like, people are
on all these news shows

that were trying to sculpt
this idea,

through him smoking weed
at school,

through all of...
through these little incidences

that he... was murderable.

♪

This is...

A memorial that we made
for victims

and people who have witnessed
violent crime.

This neighborhood is, like,
really proof

of, you know,
the way that people are affected

by the ghosts

of all these young men
and these young women

who have been killed.

♪

So there's the bed
on the top of the head

that's carrying
these white figurines.

And I remember somebody said,
you know,

"People aren't going to listen
to you if you're always angry."

They think that it is work
that exploits old ethnic notions

and racial stereotypes.

And I laugh, because, like,
racism is white supremacy.

If I was a white supremacist,

my work would look
totally different.

But I'm not starting
from the idea

that blackness is bad
or is ugly.

♪

♪ Shake it off, shake it off

CHAD:
She has transformed that house

into what's essentially
a community center.

A place for children to come
and immerse themselves

in the creative power of art.

♪ Shake it off, shake it off

♪ Shake it off, shake it off.

VANESSA:
See, they're drying?

This is the first one you did.

Look at this one, see?

- It's dry?
- Ooh, it's dry.

- Is that mine?
- It's so pretty.

-Is that mine?
-Yeah.

- Can I...
- Look at that one.

If you mix yellow
and red, you get orange.

So what if I mix yellow
in it now?

What color will it...
- See what happens.

You just have to add
a little bit more.

All right,
in the middle,

we're going to say,
"We Love You," but not...

RA-RA: In the middle?
No, we going to say,

"Please Stop Shooting.
We Love You."

:
Oh, my hand.

VANESSA:
What's wrong?

Ra-Ra's scared again.

VANESSA:
Come here, buddy.

RA-RA:
At nighttime,

every time I go to the bathroom,

I always hear gunshots,

and I be running
and telling my mom.

- I know.
- And I be hiding.

I be scared.
- I know.

VANESSA:
Two people were murdered

outside of the house last year,

which, unfortunately, Ra-Ra saw.

My head will rustle
on the pillow at night,

and I think
I'm hearing gunshots.

I'm... I've seen the same things
he's seen,

and I am surprised the way
that it comes back.

And I'm embarrassed by it,

because nobody's talking
about it.

Everybody is, like...

:
"You should be so normal."

So it's like this little place

where you feel, like,
a little humiliated,

because you're still affected
by something

that so many people act
like they're not affected by.

It's so, like, it's so weird.

It's more than any of us
should have to deal with.

Do you tell your momma
when you get scared?

RA-RA: Um, yeah.

Sometimes.

- Yeah.

It's good to have somebody
to talk to

when you're scared.

♪

It's about carrying trauma
in your body.

And when I work,
a lot of the times,

I'm trying to work something
out of my body.

Like, give voice
to, like, this grief,

and to the trauma
that you carry with you

so that my body can continue on.

♪

♪

PHOTOGRAPHER:
Everyone look super-smart.

WOMAN:
I'm trying, I'm next to you.

PETER :
What do smart people look like?

What do cultured people do
with their hands?

PHOTOGRAPHER:
That's great.

I'm just getting more and
more nervous the whole time.

- Yeah, getting worse.

Excuse me.

I'm wondering if there's
anything I needed to fix.

Not that I didn't trust them
in terms of, like, breaking it,

but, like, looking at something
that you've already let go,

you're, like,
"Oh, it's not exactly done,

but the deadline came."

But I think it stands up
pretty good,

and I'm, I'm happy about it.

So, and what's the base?

- The base is, uh,
it's, uh, it's marble, too.

They call it a blue marble.

And I'm pretty sure
it's from North Carolina.

Yeah, I worked for Levi's
from 1980 to '99, so...

- Uh-huh.
- That whole time

of the disappearance of
manufacturing in North America,

and we had to change the focus
of what we were doing.

We had to change
that big battleship

from huge, long production
to something more fashionable.

- Uh-huh.
- And quicker response,

to change that ship around.

- You did it.

Because it's still... Levi's is
still solid now, you know.

Peter Oakley is my name.
- Oh, Ken Sirlin.

Welcome, Peter.
- Hi, Ken.

We're going to meet in
the atrium in five minutes.

- Okay.
- And then we'll walk together.

-Cool.
-Okay.

So please join me
in welcoming Chad Alligood.

Thank you, Lisa.

"State of the Art" was
the great journey of my life.

In the words of one of the
featured artists in this show,

Vanessa German,

"I believe in the power of art."

When you walk into the gallery
tonight,

I hope you find something
that resonates deeply

and beautifully with you.

Something that compels you
to come closer,

to investigate your place
in the world.

And I think that this is
one of the most critical,

pressing issues of our time,

to inspire empathy
in one another.

To recognize
that things are different

depending on who you are.

There's great power in that.

And there's great power in this.

♪

"State of the Art,"
they curated this exhibition

of work that would probably
have never been seen.

I don't think
everybody's story

is being told accurately
in the whole history of art.

So taking a survey
of American art,

I think, is actually pretty,
pretty brilliant.

Whoa!

I love myself more

when I'm making art
than any other time.

Like, I, I am clear.

I understand why I'm alive.

Everything makes sense here.

This has the power
to protect your imagination.

♪

This is the beginning point--
this is not the end.

You know,
this project will continue.

♪

I hope

we've inspired people to look
at the world around them.

There are artists everywhere.

All you have to do is look.

♪