In early August, a small group of artists and friends gathered in a Brooklyn studio with a shared question in mind: In the wake of the Trump administration’s tightening grip on the arts, what could and should be their role? Out of a series of weekly meetings and conversations emerged a new initiative uniting artists and cultural institutions across the country, in what is being called “Fall of Freedom” (falloffreedom) — a play on words meant to capture the precarity or possibility of the current moment, depending on one’s view. “We really just wanted to highlight the double meaning of the loss of freedom with the taking back of freedom,” said visual artist Jenny Polak, one of the project’s initiators, in a phone interview with Hyperallergic. Polak, whose work often addresses intersecting issues concerning immigrant detention and forced labor, helped shape the project’s founding vision. Beginning in late November, participants of all kinds — from comedians to independent bookstores to...