As part of the 2026 Phil Lind Initiative, join us for an evening with acclaimed American artist and activist Dread Scott. The conversation will be moderated by The Polygon Gallery's Curator Elliott Ramsey.

Doors at 6:30pm
Event at 7:00pm

Free

This event is at capacity. You are welcome to join the rush line on the day of the event, however admission is not guaranteed.

About Dread Scott
Interdisciplinary artist and activist Dread Scott has spent his career using art to disrupt norms, question corrupt systems of power, and ignite necessary political conversations. His work, he writes, “looks towards an era without exploitation or oppression,” challenging the notion that current political and economic structures of America as inevitable. In 1989, his now-iconic artwork "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?" was denounced by President George H.W. Bush and the U.S. Senate. The resulting Supreme Court case cemented its place in art history as a touchstone for debates about patriotism and dissent.

Scott works in a range of media from performance and photography to screen-printing and video, inviting audiences to confront the colonial and capitalist contradictions at the heart of American democracy. In 2024 The All African People’s Consulate was included in the Venice Biennial, and in 2019 Slave Rebellion Reenactment was profiled in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and CNN. His work has been included in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, Cristin Tierney Gallery and is in the collection of the Whitney Museum, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The National Gallery of Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a 2023 Rome Prize Fellow and has also received fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and United States Artists.
www.dreadscott.net

About The Phil Lind Initiative
The Phil Lind Initiative is hosted by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. The initiative’s mandate is to invite prominent U.S. scholars, writers, and intellectuals to UBC to share ideas with students, faculty, and the wider community on some of the most urgent issues of our time. This year's theme America First, America Alone? Global Politics in an Age of Uncertainty features events with Thomas L. Friedman, Charity Weeden, Hasan Piker, Dread Scott, Rachel Maddow, and Carlos Lozada. This series is made possible through a generous gift from the late Philip B. Lind, recently extended by the Lind family in his honour.
www.lindinitiative.ubc.ca

About Elliott Ramsey
Elliott Ramsey is Curator of The Polygon Gallery, based on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Nations and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Band. He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Comparative Media Arts (2015) from Simon Fraser University, and is an alumnus of the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Professional Alliance for Curators of Colour. He has sat on numerous panels, juries, and public art committees, including the Sobey Art Award, VIVA Award, Portfolio Prize, and Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography. Ramsey has curated over a dozen exhibitions, including the internationally touring exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, presented by Aperture and featuring work from the Toronto-based Wedge Collection.