2025
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Recovery in Practice PDX - The Alano Club of Portland and The Bodecker Foundation, Portland, OR. Hosted by Freyer, The Alano Club of Portland, The Bodecker Foundation, and VCUarts. A 2-day conference uniting artists, authors, activists and researchers for workshops, panel discussions, and community events that celebrate the broad and diverse national recovery community.
This annual event was previously hosted in NYC (2023), the United Kingdom (2024), and at Virginia Commonwealth University early this year.
2025
Recovery in Practice VCU- Institute of Contemporary Art, Richmond, VA - Hosted by John Freyer, VCU Humanities Research Center, VCUarts, Rams in Recovery, and Richmond’s Inclusive Recovery City Initiative at the Institute for Contemporary Art and 1708 Gallery from Thursday, April 17th – Saturday, April 19th, 2025.
The conference featured artists, writers, and activists with lived experience with substance use disorders and addiction. They discussed the important work the Richmond community is doing to celebrate folks in recovery recovery, reduce stigma for people who use drugs, and address the intersectional nexus between recovery and decarceration.
Recovery in Practice Exhibition - VCU Alumni
Presented by the Joseph Seipel Gallery, this exhibition showed visual artists who are alumni of the VCUarts program. The exhibition coincided with the first-ever “Recovery in Practice” conference to be held in Richmond, Virginia, and highlighted the journeys of artists who are navigating recovery, while continuing to cultivate powerful and thought-provoking practices
This exhibition not only showcased the resilience and creativity of VCUarts alumni but also complemented the broader mission of the “Recovery in Practice” conference. The exhibition invited viewers to contemplate how art can serve as a transformative tool for recovery and healing, both for the individual artist and for the community at large. As artists continue to engage in their creative processes, their work becomes a living testament to the power of recovery.
2024
Recovery in Practice UK - University of Derby and Teesside University, United Kingdom - “Recovery in Practice UK” (#RiP_UK) invited students, staff, and faculty, together with community members, to engage directly with the rich creative practices of our invited speakers and diverse community partners.
Expanding upon the success of the 2023 “Recovery in Practice” program at Columbia University. RiP UK hosted site-specific events at the University of Derby and Teesside University at the invitation of Dr David Patton and Recovery Connections.
“Recovery In Practice” expands on the Fifty/Fifty projects that John D. Freyer completed in 2018 at Tate Modern, London, Tate Exchange.
2023
Recovery in Practice NYC - Columbia University, New York, NY. - Freyer hosted an innovative gathering of artists, authors, activists, and scientific researchers as they share their stories and foster conversations about what it means to practice recovery at Colubmia University.
Through social practice artworks, scientific research, and creative writing, conference speakers trained students and community members in best practices, coalition building, and harm reduction to achieve social impact for the Columbia and Manhattanville communities.
The Free Book Exchange is a mobile library of hope, gratitude and change. The public is invited to donate/exchange a book of significance that inspired a change in them, offered them hope or started them on a different path. The initial catalog was curated by John D. Freyer and features the creative output of artists and writers participating in the Recovery in Practice Conference at The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. The Free Book Exchange is community building conversation on wheels about creative practice, human connection and the perseverance of persons in recovery.
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