Turn the Volume Up exhibit opens at Duke’s Nasher Museum, tying everyday activism to art confronting injustice

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University has opened “Turn the Volume Up!” with a focus on how artists and everyday people have confronted injustice through images, music references, and public-facing creativity. The exhibit is presented as a visual exploration of activism, including works associated with campaigns and cultural pressure against racist policies, according to the Guardian’s account of the show’s themes and featured creators.

The name of the exhibition is linked to a remark made by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his election-day victory speech, where he quoted the Bronx rapper KRS-One’s “Turn the Volume Up,” the Guardian reported. The exhibit frames that cultural reference as an invitation to amplify public attention, with the museum using it as a through-line for how communities organize and respond to entrenched discrimination.

Among the artists highlighted in the Nasher’s presentation are Kara Walker and Carrie Mae Weems, as well as the collective Guerrilla Girls, the Guardian said. The Guardian’s gallery description places the exhibit within a broader history of political and cultural messaging, describing it as a collection that connects art-making to organized resistance and to the role of ordinary people as catalysts for change.

The Guardian also summarized the show’s emphasis on “everyday heroes,” a framing that the museum applies to individuals whose actions are portrayed as part of the struggle against injustice. The account points to the exhibition’s attention to public life, suggesting that the works are meant to be read not only as aesthetic objects but also as cultural tools used in moments when communities seek accountability or rights.

In keeping with the show’s scope, the exhibit’s presentation includes imagery and references that connect the slogan “Jim Crow must go” to resistance against the legacy of legalized racial segregation in the United States. The Guardian described the exhibit as addressing both historical and ongoing forms of racial injustice, tying the phrase to a wider conversation about what kinds of pressure, visibility, and organizing have been used to challenge those systems.

The Nasher Museum is located on Duke University’s campus, and the Guardian’s coverage indicates the exhibition is staged as a museum-facing display meant for galleries and museum visitors rather than as a standalone publication. The reporting also indicates that the show uses art by multiple generations to document how cultural expression can intersect with street-level organizing and broader civic campaigns.

The show’s specific lineup, installation details, and exact opening dates and closing dates were not fully enumerated in the Guardian’s gallery write-up. Still, the museum’s decision to build an exhibit around a current political moment, a rap lyric, and long-running activism narratives points to the Nasher’s intent to connect contemporary public speech with historical campaigns in a single gallery experience.

For visitors and members of the university community, the exhibit offers a museum format for engaging debates about how discrimination has been confronted in public life, and how institutions present that history to audiences. Whether the program draws increased attention from critics or from supporters, the immediate next step for interested viewers will be to check the museum’s published exhibit information for dates, gallery locations, and any related programming. The Guardian’s account centers the exhibition’s themes and featured names, but attendees are likely to need the museum’s own schedule to plan visits.