Artist John D. Freyer, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, has a unique specialty.

His “Fifty/Fifty” project, a series of social practice art projects, is explained as “part conceptually based performance art, part turn-of-the-century medicine show” that encourages people to talk about drug and alcohol addiction and recovery.

Because the art projects are staged in public spaces, such as galleries, museums, on college campuses and around town, people initially aren’t aware they are part of the “audience” and engaged in social practice art. The resulting casual conversations help de-stigmatize people recovering from addiction and those that support them.

Now Mr. Freyer’s work is going global.

The artist, author and educator was selected to be the first U.S.-based Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern in London, an internationally recognized institution housing the United Kingdom’s national collection of British art, as well as international modern and contemporary art.

From June 26 through July 1, Mr. Freyer will stage his “Fifty/Fifty” series at Tate Modern. “Addiction and recovery is a global issue that needs to be dealt with on an intensely local level and, often, at a granular level as a single conversation,” Mr. Freyer says. “I welcome this opportunity to share my projects, story and good conversations over glasses of water, freshly brewed coffee and regionally specific simple suppers.”

“Fifty/Fifty” was developed “out of my personal experience of being in recovery,” Mr. Freyer says. “Free Hot Coffee,” or Coffee Bike, is one of the projects in the series that will be featured at the Tate. The bike is a mobile hot coffee kiosk operated by students that either are in recovery or are allies of those in recovery. The bike travels around campus and around town. Operators make coffee the old-fashioned way — grinding coffee beans, putting them in a paper filter and pouring hot water over the beans to makes the coffee in 3 to 5 minutes.

“They serve it in metal cups that can’t be taken away,” Mr. Freyer says. “So it makes space for people to have a conversation with each other about where we are as a country, about opioid addiction and reducing the stigma attached to recovery.”

The interaction with people in recovery may help shift negative perceptions about people struggling with addiction, Mr. Freyer says.

“What people find when they interact with students on the coffee bike is that these young people are nearly indistinguishable from the kids that are walking around getting coffee from the coffee bikes,” he says. “There are a tremendous number of high achievers at VCU that are part of the recovery group. The students I work with are committed to maintaining sobriety through graduation in the university setting, which, you can imagine, is pretty recovery-hostile.”

In January, Mr. Freyer produced “Recovery Roast” for Tate Exchange. He worked in collaboration with the Tate Roastery and participants in recovery. The specially roasted coffee will be brewed and served during Mr. Freyer’s residency and project in London.

The opportunity to go global began last fall when Churchill Fellow Dot Turton, CEO of Recovery Connections, a peer-led organization in London, was researching collegiate recovery programs in America. A colleague directed her to VCU and Mr. Freyer.

“She became one of our primary partners, as well as a connection to the Tate museum in London,” Mr. Freyer says.

Subsequently, Mr. Freyer was told about the Tate Exchange program, applied and was accepted. Now in its second year, Tate Exchange explores how art makes a difference to society and creates a common space for the public to debate contemporary topics and ideas, to get involved and make a difference. VCU School of the Arts and Mr. Freyer are the Tate Exchange’s first U.S. partners. While happy, Mr. Freyer is circumspect about the opportunity as a person in recovery. “The joy in my life is to be present and sober, with the ability to serve my family and my students in a way that I hadn’t been able to before.”

Meet artist-activist and this week’s Personality, John D. Freyer: Latest accomplishment: First U.S.-based Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern in London

Date and place of birth: Syracuse, N.Y., in 1972.

Current home: Richmond.

Alma maters: Bachelor of arts, Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.; master’s of arts and master’s of fine arts, University of Iowa.

Family: Wife, Sasha Waters Freyer, and daughters, Georgia, 13, and Ruby, 10.

The importance of Tate Exchange: The Tate Exchange has 60 associates both from the United Kingdom and internationally. These include charities, universities, health care trusts and community organizations working within and beyond the arts. Now in the second year, associates at Tate Modern and at Tate Liverpool are working closely with one another and with Tate to respond to the theme of “production.” Their participatory program of workshops, activities and debates takes place throughout spring and summer 2018.

Impact being Tate Exchange Associate will have on VCU students: Student interns have supported the “Fifty/Fifty” projects, from posters and branding to helping shape a choral work that I created to premiere at the Tate in June.

Why I became a teacher: I wanted to share my interests and expertise with students.

Teaching philosophy: My unique appointment as an assistant professor of Cross Disciplinary Media at the VCU School of the Arts affords me a diversity of teaching opportunities. My multidisciplinary practice intersects with departments and research units across VCU and my teaching philosophy reflects that diversity. My primary teaching and advising responsibilities are within the Department of Photography and Film, where I teach graduate MFA and undergraduate photography and film majors at all levels of the curriculum.

“Fifty/Fifty” project is: A traveling series of interdisciplinary, social practice art projects fostering dialogue on addiction and recovery. “Fifty/Fifty” is comprised of “Free Ice Water,” “Free Hot Coffee” and “Free Hot Supper,” each respectively creating a space for solitude and self reflection, outreach and conversation, and community dialogue with diverse and often unexpected audiences. This project, like my previous online performance project/book, “All My Life for Sale,” embodies the core of my artistic practice, which is the engagement with “accidental” audiences for art, whether from an interaction with my mobile pour-over coffee station serving “Recovery Roast” coffee, or stopping for an ice cold glass of water on hot days on the streets of Richmond, Doha, New York City, Chicago or Iowa City. Initially, participants in my projects are unaware of their involvement in a social practice art work. The vast majority of them appreciate the gesture of free hot coffee and free ice water and walk on by. But some of them need to know more. They ask, “Why is this here?” “Who is responsible for this?” and “Why are they doing it?” Art, for me, creates space for dialogue and conversations about what it means to live in community.

When and why I got involved in creating art: My mother was a practicing artist. Art was always a part of my daily life.

Types of art I involve myself with: I am mostly involved with photography and socially engaged project-based art forms.

What I hope people will take away from my work: I want people to walk away from my work with a changed set of assumptions about the subjects in my work.

Feedback I receive: Positive feedback about my work from the arts community and people not involved in the arts.

Greatest artistic influence: I would have a hard time selecting a single influence, as I feel like my work is influenced more by participants in my projects than any particular artist’s work.

My role as an artist: Is to create space for people and communities to be in conversation with each other about things that are important to them.

Public perception of artists: Separate or disconnected from the world.

Role of art in Richmond: I like to say that Richmond is the Arts Capital. 

What improvements are needed: I think the new Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU will play an important role in creating a community dialogue about what Richmond is and where it is going.

Public support for artists is: Very important.

Perception of VCU: I feel very fortunate to be an assistant professor at VCUarts. As an artist and citizen that is committed to public education, working at the No. 1 public art school in the country is a great honor and a privilege.

Role school plays for artists: Beyond teaching and training artists and teachers, VCUarts plays a huge role in nurturing the creative community that makes Richmond such a leader in the arts and creativity.

How I start the day: I wake up at 5 a.m. each weekday and go for a swim at the Cary Street Gym.

A perfect day for me: Is to wake up on time, get to the gym, get my daughters to school and get into my studio at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: Compete in chili cook-offs.

Kindergarten taught me: To listen.

Best late-night snack: Chicken parm sandwich at Joe’s Inn in The Fan.

How I unwind: Hanging with my daughters watching reruns of Mary Tyler Moore.

A quote that I am inspired by is: “All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores.”  — Andy Warhol

The person who influenced me the most: My father, Jack Freyer.

The book that influenced me the most: “An Anecdoted Topography of Chance” by Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth and Robert Filliou. 

What I’m reading now: “Our Lady of the Prairie” by Thisbe Nissen.

My next goal: Research and complete a new body of work during my upcoming 2018-19 VMFA Fellowship.