Image: Brooklyn Museum, New York
The Brooklyn Museum is spotlighting its exhibition 'Common Sense' with a new Highlights Tour, framing the presentation as a conversation between America’s past and its present. The museum says the exhibition draws on the legacy of Thomas Paine, the statesman, abolitionist, and philosopher whose writings 'Common Sense' (1776) and 'The American Crisis' (1776–83) helped shape revolutionary discourse during the American Revolution.
According to the museum, Paine is credited with helping frame the argument for independence at the onset of the Revolution, and his texts expanded what colonists believed was possible for the new nation’s future. The exhibition uses that history as a point of departure for contemporary art, presenting present-day artistic work in dialogue with the democratic ideals and divisions that continue to shape the United States.
'Common Sense' is part of 'Drawing America: US@250', a season of art installations, programs, and partnerships organized by the Brooklyn Museum. The museum describes the broader initiative as honoring people who have imagined a more equitable future and fought for 'the promise of our democracy', as well as those who continue that work today. The institution also links the project to the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, noting that the country was navigating deep division then and continues to do so now.
The Brooklyn Museum’s email does not provide a venue transfer or a separate event location for 'Common Sense'; instead, it presents the exhibition as currently open at the museum and directs visitors to a Highlights Tour and a virtual tour. The message invites audiences to 'come see Common Sense for yourself' and points viewers to the museum’s video tour as a way to preview the installation.
The exhibition is organized by Catherine Morris, Department Chair and Sackler Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art. Their curatorial framing places the show within the museum’s contemporary art program while tying it to a larger commemorative season that connects art, civic memory, and public debate.
The email also identifies a work by Paul Ramírez Jonas, 'The Commons' (2011), in an image caption accompanying the promotion. The work is listed as a Brooklyn Museum gift of The John & Melissa Ceriale Family Foundation and Leo Koenig, and it is credited in the caption as part of the museum’s presentation. Additional support for the exhibition is provided by NORR COHAN, New York, and Salon 94 Gallery.
