Thursday, March 5, 2026 @ 4:45-6:30pm

Sheryl Oring
Hybrid Event (Harris Theater and Zoom)

Sheryl Oring makes work that activates democracy through art. She is best known for her ongoing project I Wish to Say, in which she sets up a public office and invites members of the public to dictate postcards to the U.S. president, which she types verbatim on a manual typewriter. To date, she has typed more than 5,200 postcards to four presidents from hundreds of locations across the United States. Oring also creates prints, artist books, sculptures, and public artworks that foster dialogue and examine personal and collective histories. Her work has been presented at the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale; Bryant Park in Manhattan; the Brooklyn Public Library; the Free Library of Philadelphia; the Washington National Cathedral; and the Jewish Museum Berlin, among many other venues. In 2026, Oring’s work will be featured in America 250: Common Threads at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Oring has received support from the Creative Capital Foundation, Franklin Furnace, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, and the North Carolina Council for the Arts. She has completed public art commissions at the San Diego International Airport and the Tampa International Airport, and her work is held in collections including the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Britain, and numerous university libraries across the United States. She is the editor of Activating Democracy: The “I Wish to Say” Project (Intellect Books / University of Chicago Press, 2016) and is currently completing a forthcoming book, Secretary to the People: Civic Engagement Through the Art of Sheryl Oring (Intellect Books / University of Chicago Press, 2027), edited by Corey Dzenko.

www.sheryloring.org

This event will be held at the Harris Theater on the GMU Fairfax campus and online via Zoom. RSVP is required to receive the Zoom link via email the day-of!