Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, a new ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.Exactly 55 years ago this week, three artists—Faith Ringgold, Jean Toche, and Jon Hendricks—came together to mount “The People’s Flag Show” at Judson Memorial Church in New York’s Greenwich Village. The exhibition was meant both to protest the Vietnam War and to think through the meaning of the US flag at a contentious point in history. The exhibition was directly inspired by 1967 arrest of gallery owner Stephen Radich, who was charged with discretion desecration of the US flag. His case was heard in front of the US Supreme Court the month “The People’s Flag Show” opened.“The People’s Flag Show” was in keeping with the overall mission of the church, which had by then gained a reputation for supporting experimental art, most notably in the form of the Judson Dance Theater. The show ran for a week in November 1970 and included some 150 artists who submitted work via an open call. Among those who exhibited were Ringgold, Yvonne Rainer, Kate Millet, and the Guerrilla Art Action Group. On November 13, the day before the exhibition was to close, Ringgold, Toche, and Hendricks were all arrested, charged with flag desecration, and fined $100. Their case was eventually dismissed after being taken on by the American Civil Liberties Union.This week, Judson Commons, the nonprofit arts arm of Judson Memorial Church, will mark the 55th anniversary of the original “People’s Flag Show” with a new version of the exhibition that takes up the mantel of the original exhibition: the more than 60 artists featured also submitted via an open call with art about the US flag as its center theme. In addition to the exhibition, which will be staged in the Judson Gym, a week-long of programming will accompany the show, including an opening on Tuesday and performances throughout the week. (Judson Commons has the full schedule.)To learn more about the new “People’s Flag Show” and how it connects with the historical moment in which the original debuted and our current moment, ARTnews spoke with Rev. Micah Busey, senior minister of Judson Memorial Church and artistic director of Judson Commons.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and concision.Peggy Diggs, Partial Flag, 2025.Courtesy the artists and Judson CommonsARTnews: Can you briefly talk about the original “People’s Flag Show” and the context in which it was staged?Micah Busey: The year 1970 was at the height of the Vietnam War, and there were three artists—Jean Toche, Jon Hendricks, and Faith Ringgold—who came to the pastors at Judson Memorial Church and essentially said that they wanted to do a dual protest through this show. They wanted to, of course, protest the war and the US’s continued funding of that war, and also to test the limits of freedom of expression, especially as there was such a crackdown on flag desecration laws. The pastors at Judson, as usual, said, “This is the exact place where you can and should do this show.” The show opened in November 1970. It was a week-long exhibition where there were several dozen works on display for that week, combined with talks, etc., much like what will be happening this year.At that time, the police came into the show and arrested the three curators of the show, and also arrested two of our pastors. That has built into its mystique; Jean, Jon, and Faith being arrested, created a name for them: the Judson Three. That name isn’t only well-known in certain circles, but it’s also the title of a beautiful piece by Faith. Those curators fought that that arrest for several years and were each fined $100. The limits that they were testing back then, I think, very much harmonized with the limits that we’re testing now.What about Judson made it the right venue for this kind of show?Ever since Judson opened in the 1890s, there have been three legs to the stool that holds Judson up. Those are expansive spirituality, radical social justice seeking, and unfettered, uncensored creativity. Ever since the founding, that has baked into not only the DNA philosophically, but even into aspects of how our building was built, why it looks the way it’s built, why it’s on Washington Square. At the time it was built, it was surrounded by Italian immigrant tenements, so immigration and ministry to immigrants is a huge part of our DNA. Counting artists as our modern-day prophets is in our DNA, which is essentially saying artists are the question askers. They are the ones who disorient us in order to reorient us and show us new horizons that our myopic human imaginations can’t find without being disoriented. We think that artists show us where we’ve been, who we are, and what we can become.Right now, we are very much in line with Judson’s continuing evolution over a century-plus. Essentially, we only know how to be a church if we have organizers, activists, and artists coming into our space, completely disorienting us, and showing us new ways that we can be more empathetic, be more justice-minded, and reach out for the most endangered. In addition to being a home for artists—and especially uncensored artists, which I do think is odd and unique for a church—we are also a home to programs specifically for the most endangered folks, particularly right now in this time in our country’s history, so trans folks and queer folks and immigrants are our main focus right now.This new “People’s Flag Show” is not just an aesthetic appreciation of a time in our history. It is very much us getting back to our roots but thinking of the word “radical” that it is both rooted in our history but also tendrils out. We only know how to continue being who we are as a church and as a community if we are continuing to become more and more the justice-minded, creative, and spirited people that we’re called to be.Nnaemeka Ekwelum, American’t, 2025. Photo Natasha Moustache/Courtesy the artist and Judson CommonsTo put a finer point on it, can you explain a bit more about the overlap in the context of 1970 and the context of 2025?We are seeing genocidal wars that are funded by our US government occurring right now. This is not historical. This, of course, rhymes and harmonizes with history, but it is happening right now, and it is not getting better. Right now, we have a fascistic regime that is presently here. It is not a threat of fascism. It is fascism fully present as a clear and present danger in our midst. For us, coming together around this show, it isn’t navel gazing. It’s meant to activate. It’s meant to allow us to interrogate our complicity and accept our invitation—as artists, as activists, as organizers, as art lovers—to know that we have a place and a part to play in a revolution and in a resistance.How long has the new “People’s Flag Show” been in the works?We’re lucky at Judson to have a lot of congregants who were there at the original “People’s Flag Show” in 1970. As we came close to the 50th anniversary in 2020, a bunch of folks were thinking about having a 50th anniversary show. We have an archivist team that was ready to observe the historical moment of that original exhibition. And then we all know what happened in 2020, and so November 2020 did not seem like the best time to actually mark the anniversary. The last few years we’ve just been kind of coming in and out of conversations of thinking, How can we mark this? Then for the 55th anniversary, we saw that the dates of the original show (November 9–14) were available on Judson’s calendar, so we started to plan to observe the exhibition, from November 9–15.Then, magical things started happening. We have a group of artists who are part of our congregation and who are part of the concentric circles that make up Judson. They started suggesting having another “People’s Flag Show,” so not just observing the past and history but bringing it into the present. Then I reached out to Jon Hendricks. He has been very beautifully adamant that we not just look backward and not just look at what happened back then, but really pay attention to what’s happening now. He has been an invaluable adviser and guide as we’ve moved toward having this week of an exhibition where there will be 65 artists and collectives showing work in the gym at Judson. Along with that will be a series of performances and talks and an opening reception on Tuesday, November 11.The poster for “The 55th Anniversary People’s Flag Show.” Courtesy Judson CommonsHow would you characterize this new iteration of “The People’s Flag Show?”Freedom of expression and interrogating this symbolism of America—and the flag as the most widely known and recognized symbol of America—is the main theme. Trump announced a new executive order in August 2025 explicitly pulling us back to this perceived fear that there is further desecration of the flag happening or potentially happening. That seemed to harmonize perfectly with what was happening in 1970 where these arbitrary rules about desecration of the flag were being enforced. At the time, anyone could do something with the flag as long as they were celebrating the government, but if you interrogated the flag or questioned the flag in any other way that was considered desecration. So, interrogating what the artist’s role is—in terms of freedom of expression, freedom of speech—is our main theme.In terms of the selection, the original show was an open call, and everything that was submitted was selected and displayed. We have followed that model as well—John insisted on that.How does this new “People’s Flag Show” fit into Judson’s overall arts-related programming?I came to Judson in 2009. I come from the theater world. As I was preparing to go to seminary, I wanted to find a church where I could experiment with creating a playground for performance artists and musicians, especially, to try out new work. Judson has that in its history and DNA. It was wonderful to come to a church, as I was preparing to go to seminary, and say, “I want a church that counts artists as modern-day prophets, that finds its spirituality rooted in social justice seeking, and that doesn’t think that Christianity is the answer, but that there are multiple paths to embodying spirituality.” Judson basically said, “Check, check, check. That’s what we’ve done for a very long time.” I started to re-up programs that now are under a banner called Judson Arts. I think that we’ve gone in waves, and mostly it is because we are a little church that tries to do big things, and we do it spiritedly and often scrappily. But we do it with a ton of empathy and enthusiasm. It’s a resurgence that’s been bubbling for a couple decades of saying, “It’s not just the historic Judson Memorial Church. It is the right-now Judson Memorial Church.” That there is a present and a future to Judson that is, of course, rooted in that history, but is tendril-ing out from there and resurrecting.Asé Selah, To be seen, 2025.Courtesy the artist and Judson CommonsYou mentioned that Judson has a different approach to spirituality and Christianity. How would you address people who are interested in coming to the show, but might be afraid to go because there’s a church involved?What is also baked into our DNA is that there’s no intention of proselytizing. We consider the spirituality of what we’re doing here to be inherent, and we don’t even ever need to talk about it. There is a congregation here that will contextualize what we’re doing from a spiritual standpoint, but we have many people who even come to service on a Sunday morning who wouldn’t consider themselves Christian.We always approach spirituality and faith in the form of a question, which is why activists, organizers, and artists are so important to the project. They are the voices shaping who we are and what we do. It isn’t just fascism and nationalism that are descending on us; it’s distinctly Christian nationalism. At a time where Christian nationalism has the mic, where they are hogging the space and essentially defining Christianity for everyone in a truly violent and dangerous way, I think there’s actually explicit power to this show happening in a church because there is no desire to move into any kind of marrying of Christianity and nationalism. In fact, the only spirituality that we know has no ties to nationalism. So, for those who would be nervous about there being a church element to it, every day of the week since our founding, we have been filled with secular programming that that is explicitly non-Christian and oftentimes even non-spiritual, except for the ways that folks want to contextualize it for themselves.Bruce Marrow, Untitled, 2025.Courtesy the artist and Judson CommonsWhat do you and the Judson community hope people take away from visiting the exhibition or any of the week-long programs?I hope they are activated to get involved in activism. I hope that they are activated to say that art can be art for art’s sake, of course, but it can be—and I would argue should be—a catalyst for embodying who you’re called to be, not only all the time, but especially right now, in a time like this where fascism and Christian nationalism are threatening us. Watching artists create in the midst of it can be a catalyst for anyone—whether they call themselves an artist or not—to understand that they can be the makers of creation in the midst of destruction, no matter who they are. That’s what makes art and artists so dangerous. That’s why artists are the first voices that get silenced at a time like this, and you can see it now. We are seeing that artists, activists, and organizers are the first targets right now where the current governmental regime is trying to tamp down on any kind of art that is questioning the direction that the country is going in right now. I hope that people leave feeling activated to go in create in the midst of destruction.And beyond this week’s “People’s Flag Show,” what else can people look forward to at Judson?At the opening of the “People’s Flag Show,” we will formally announce the permanent installation of three of Yoko Ono’s “Invisible Flags” in front of Judson’s building on December 11. Jon Hendricks and I started talking about this beautiful project by Yoko Ono called “Invisible Flags.” That seemed like a perfect dovetail with the intention of what the “People’s Flag Show was—and is. Aesthetically, “Invisible Flags” are essentially flag poles that are outfitted to have flags on them and simply don’t. Along the lines of much of Yoko’s work, it is very much interrogating why we have isolationism, why we have nationalism, why we create borders where we don’t need to create borders. I’m excited that this will then take what is an ephemeral show that will last for a week, and then take it into a permanent installation that will represent the intention of “The People’s Flag Show” in perpetuity.