Recovery in Practice

#RIP_NYC #RIP_UK #RIP_VCU #RIP_PDX

Recovery In Practice expands on the Fifty/Fifty projects that P.I. Freyer completed in 2018 at Tate Modern, London, Tate Exchange by gathering artists, writers, activists and researchers with lived experience in substance use disorder and recovery to talk about their research and practice in public, in-person dialogue.  Recovery in Practice is the culmination of ten years of P.I. Freyer’s research, service and advocacy work as a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University.  The proposed programs will highlight VCUarts’ leadership in support of community-based, socially engaged research practices; VCU’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaborations between the arts, humanities and the health sciences, and expands the national/international discourse around the crossroads of creative practice, advocacy, addiction, recovery, and harm reduction.  In addition to the in-person programming, Recovery in Practice will be fully documented in an illustrated catalog, a series of multi camera video distributed via a dedicated youtube channel and hosted on the website recoveryinpractice.org. 

#RIP_VCU - 1708 Gallery and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University - APRIL 2025

Richmond-based artist and educator John D. Freyer successfully launched Recovery in Practice, a three-day gathering that brought together artists, authors, activists, and researchers to explore the many pathways of practicing recovery and celebrating creative practice. Hosted at the Institute for Contemporary Art and the 1708 Gallery from April 17–19, 2025, the event was free and open to the public, drawing students, faculty, and community members into meaningful conversations and immersive experiences centered on recovery, harm reduction, and social impact.

The conference started Thursday evening with a vibrant opening reception and keynote speaker session featuring photographer Margaret Stratton at the 1708 Gallery. Attendees were welcomed into a space of dialogue and connection, setting the tone for the days ahead.

Over the next two days, Recovery in Practice offered a robust lineup of panel discussions, workshops, and collaborative conversations. Artists and creatives in recovery, such as Carvell Wallace, Elizabeth Huey, Dyan Neary, and Sarah Shotland, shared personal stories, while educators and peer support advocates like the Health Brigade and RIFFS AND RECOVERY discussed strategies for community building, stigma reduction, and the intersection of recovery and decarceration. Each session was designed not only to inform but to actively engage participants in shaping a more inclusive and empathetic recovery culture.

Throughout the event, impactful collaborations with our sponsors - the VCU Humanities Research Center, VCUarts, Rams in Recovery, and Richmond’s Inclusive Recovery City Initiative demonstrated the power of interdisciplinary partnerships. These alliances helped frame Recovery in Practice as both an educational forum and a celebration of lived experience.

An extension of VCU’s broader efforts in collegiate recovery, Recovery in Practice highlighted the essential role of peer support and community engagement in transforming recovery conversations on campus and beyond. Rams in Recovery played a key role in anchoring the event, offering students in recovery a safe and empowering space to connect, learn, and grow.

By the event’s conclusion on Saturday, attendees left with not only a deeper understanding of recovery as a practice but also a renewed commitment to advocacy, compassion, and social change. As Freyer and his collaborators continue to grow this event, Recovery in Practice has established itself as a part of Richmond’s creative and recovery landscape.

For more information and to explore the full schedule of events, visit: https://ripvcu.sched.com/

#RiP_NYC - The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities - Columbia University - SEPT 2023: Keynote & Free Ice Water

A conversation between Leslie Jamison and John Freyer about how their experiences in recovery shape and inform their current creative practice. Audience members will then have 20-minute one-on-one “Free Ice Water” conversations about turning points in their lives.

John Freyer is an artist, author, and educator based in Richmond, Virginia. His artistic practice intersects with the spectrum of topics related to addiction and recovery, including using the arts to engage with marginalized populations, participating in peer-reviewed social science research, and advocating on behalf of young people in recovery.

Freyer's projects include All My Life for Sale, Big Boy, Live IKEA, Free Ice Water, and Free Hot Coffee. Freyer is an associate professor of Cross-Disciplinary Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Freyer’s practice engages accidental audiences in galleries, museums, and public spaces. He explores the role of everyday, personal objects in our lives – as commodities, fetishes, and totems and investigates how the circulation of objects and stories enriches social ties between individuals and groups. He earned his MFA from the University of Iowa. His work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, The Sunday London Times, Artforum, Print Magazine, and NBC’s The Today Show. Freyer is a Fulbright Scholar, a Macdowell Colony Fellow, and was an Artist in Residence at Light Work and the Fannon Center, Doha, Qatar. Freyer has brought his social practice projects to the TEDx stage, has exhibited at Mixed Greens Gallery in New York, and the Liverpool Biennial Fringe in Liverpool, UK.

Freyer’s 2018 Tate Exchange Program at Tate Modern in London featured his series of social practice artworks, including Free Ice Water, Free Hot Coffee, Free Hot Supper, and premiered an original song written by Freyer and performed by a coalition of four UK-based recovery choirs.

Leslie Jamison is the New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, Make it Scream, Make it Burn, and a novel, The Gin Closet. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and was the guest editor for the 2017 edition of Best American Essays. A finalist for a National Magazine Award, her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Virginia Quarterly Review. She directs the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.