Creating art that examines the gap between America’s ideals and its lived realities.
What we do
the american vicarious creates art that challenges us to confront the gap between America’s ideals and its lived realities. We produce performance, installation, and media projects that invite audiences not just to witness, but to participate — to step inside the work, reflect on its questions, and discover their role within it.
Our projects range from reimagined historic debates to large-scale participatory installations. They are designed to cross boundaries of form, space, and audience, always with the same purpose: to create opportunities for dialogue, reflection, and civic engagement.
We believe art is a civic act. In a culture increasingly defined by division, our work seeks to hold space where multiple perspectives can exist together, where conversation replaces confrontation, and where art becomes a rehearsal for democracy.
Who We Are
Founded in 2018, the american vicarious is a Brooklyn-based non-profit arts organization led by Artistic Director Christopher McElroen and Producing Director Erica Laird. We collaborate with artists, designers, writers, and communities to create work that is both socially urgent and artistically rigorous.
Our productions have reached audiences in over 20 cities across 12 countries — in theaters, galleries, and public spaces — each time reshaping the relationship between art and audience.
The name the american vicarious reflects both our subject and our method: to stand in another’s place, to witness, and to reflect America back to itself — fractured, resilient, contradictory, and unfinished.