John Freyer

John Freyer explains how he came to make art that creates space for people to slow down and have honest conversations with each other.This episode also features artist, curator and educator Sarah Irvin, curator of student exhibitions and programs at the Anderson, VCUarts' premier on-campus exhibition space.---About John FreyerJohn Freyer is an associate professor of cross-disciplinary media at VCUarts. Freyer is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist and a founding member of the Inclusive Recovery City initiative in Richmond, Va. His projects include the Free Narcan Bike, All My Life for Sale, Free Ice Water, Free Hot Coffee and Free Hot Supper. Freyer is a Fulbright Scholar, a MacDowell Fellow and an artist-in-residence at Light Work & the Fannon Center, Doha. Freyer has brought his social practice projects to the TEDx stage, Mixed Greens Gallery in New York, the Liverpool Biennial Fringe and was a 2018 Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern. Freyer founded the traveling symposium Recovery in Practice at Columbia University in the Fall of 2023. Recovery In Practice has since been hosted at University of Derby, Teesside University in the UK in 2024, Virginia Commonwealth University and at the Portland Alano Club in 2025.About Sarah IrvinSarah Irvin is an artist, curator and educator. She earned a Master of Fine of Arts from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia. Irvin has been featured in more than twenty solo shows, as well as more than eighty group exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Her work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She is the founder of the Artist Parent Index, a searchable database of artists making work about their experience with reproduction and caring for their children. She is the Curator of Student Exhibitions and Programs at the Anderson and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses for VCUarts. Irvin is represented by Bond Millen Gallery, Richmond; Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York; and Massey Klein Gallery, New York.---VCUarts Uncharted is recorded in the Community Media Center in the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Music by Felipe Leitão. For more information, visit arts.vcu.edu/uncharted.