Steve Lambert in conversation with Nia Evans

On May 8 Steve Lambert participated in a conversation with Nia Evans (and Tomashi Jackson) for Boston’s Now and There. This week Executive Director Kate Gilbert asked you, Nia Evans, Director of Boston Ujima Project, and Steve Lambert, artist and Director + Co-founder of The Center for Artistic Activism, “Is arts activism enough?” Together we …

Stephen Duncombe on the V,OID Podcast

The V,OID (or Volunteers, organized in disorder) podcast focuses on interviewing key organizers, community builders, and ecological harmonists that have inspired the podcast creators in their efforts. In this episode we chat with Stephen Duncombe, a professor and co-founder of the Center for Artistic Activism. We talk about combining art and activism, digging into popular …

Brooke Singer has a new book

Brooke Singer is an alum of the Center for Artistic Activism’s first program. Carbon Sponge: A Guide To Grow Carbon in Urban Soils (and Beyond) Carbon Sponge: A Guide To Grow Carbon in Urban Soils (and Beyond) is the full account of the Carbon Sponge project, including: the science of carbon sequestration, why urban carbon …

Four Keys to Building a Global Movement in 14 Days

How do you build a global movement in 14 days? On March 13th, we began a meeting with a huge question; what the heck can we do in the face of the coronavirus? 14 days later, we were hosting a live, online information session for a new program. Over 475 people from more than 27 …

April Fool’s for Big Pharma

Pharmaceutical companies pay accountants, attorneys, and even ombudsmen to make sure they are held accountable to their finances, the law, and ethics. So this April Fool’s we wondered, why are we holding them accountable for free? Today we sent invoices to companies like Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, and Purdue Pharmaceuticals for our work to …

Join us & Free the Vaccine for COVID-19

We’re forming a global, advocacy innovation lab to Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 and you can take part. Update: Visit “Free the Vaccine” for most current info on the project” Together we will Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 Around the globe we are taking rapid, drastic action to slow the spread of COVID-19. As we …

Creative Anti-Corruption: Facing down the education system in Albania

Diplomas and degrees are markers of ones rigorous study and indicate to others a measure of achievement. Unfortunately, if you want a PhD in Albania, it’s within reach. Just find the right administrator and be prepared to pay. Be careful who you approach because some may prefer sexual favors to cash. This problem makes everyone’s …

Alumnus, Terry Marshall, selected for Create Change Program

Center for Artistic Activism Alumnus and Board Member, Terry Marshall, has been selected for the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Program. Center for Artistic Activism pal, Aisha Shillingford, was also included. Congratulations Terry and Aisha! The cohort, comprised of 10 Fellows and 4 Artists-in-Residence, will collaborate with New York City communities to develop, deepen, and enact …

The Center for Artistic Activism Reading List

Update: We wrote a book! The Art of Activism: Your All Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible Here, in dazzling red and black words and pictures, is an all-purpose guide that shows how to bring about effective social change by combining the emotional power of the arts with the strategic planning of activism. Join …

Aaron Hughes

“We’re bringing about these extreme situations, we’re bringing about that choice where people have to respond just like in Iraq. We’re making people respond to us. The whole idea was to share that, because there was no way in our minds that people in the United States could think that an occupation was moving into …

Why Artistic Activism?

Sometimes we’re asked, “what’s this artistic activism thing all about?” and “what’s the difference between artistic activism and regular activism?” or “why would I use artistic activism in my campaign?” As an answer, we offer this primer. Why Artistic Activism: Nine Reasons By Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert 1: Artistic Activism Mobilizes Affect and Effect …

Sheba Remy Kharbanda

“When I was doing grassroots work… around specific issues associated with trauma state violence sexual violence. I found that I wasn’t offering enough just documenting it. Witnessing is very important but then what do we do with all that pain, where do we take it? …many of us not from the “first world”, are coming …

Dara Greenwald

“You could go down to any commercial gallery and see political art. It has political content, it has a critique, opposition, maybe a submerged expression that was not readily validated by dominant culture. But activism is…is just different. I feel like there’s a real difference between making cultural projects that are intended to augment, heighten, …

Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker who lives and works in New York City. He was born in Santiago de Chile. Jaar has realized more than sixty public interventions around the world and more than fifty monographic publications have been published about his work. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and a …

Webinar #22: hilariOUCH

Steve and Steve get to hang out with Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, co-founder and co-director of Fulana, a Latina satire collective whose videos have been shown internationally at film festivals, museums, and universities, and whose members lead satire and parody workshops for emerging artists. Marlene talks about how satire can successfully be used to change the world through critical …

Webinar #21: Corruption Master Class

How do we win against corruption? We met Oluseun Onigbinde at our workshop in Guinea a few months ago. The workshop brought together artists from all over West Africa to learn creative activism strategies to combat corruption, the most significant problem facing West Africa today. Oluseun gave a fascinating presentation about how corruption works, and …

Imagining Utopia

In order to change the world we live in we need to be able to imagine the world we desire. Through the Imagining Utopia workshop, CAA faculty work with groups – ranging from elementary school students to seasoned grassroots activists – to stimulate their imagination of what could be. Beginning with presentations of dreams of …

ÆFFICACY

Effect (v.) “To bring about (an event, a result); to accomplish (an intention, a desire).” Affect (v.) “To have an effect on the mind or feelings of (a person); to impress or influence emotionally; to move, touch.” (Oxford English Dictionary) When it comes to bringing about social change, effect and affect are intertwined. Artistic activism …