12: The Chevrolet Suburban

“It’s a brand new car!” The gang hit the road in a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban SUV. Rugged, automation, comfort, and luxury – how can we use these lessons in our activism? Sound Note: This show was recorded in a moving car. Thanks to Jimmy Bigbee Garver who recorded, edited, and mixed this episode. The Chevy …

Do petitions do anything?

An article on the New York Times today looks at Change.org and whether online petition campaigns are truly effective. The answer is a qualified yes. “No president is going to do an about-face on a major policy because of 20,000 signatures,” he wrote. “But coupling that petition with other tactics like protests, rallies, phone calls, …

C4AA Fundamentals #5: Cognitive Science

The co-founders of the C4AA discussed human cognition – how people think and process information. The Questions Why is it that people don’t seem to care about truth and the facts? Why is it so hard to change people’s political opinions? How do we introduce new ideas in audiences when their way of thinking doesn’t …

C4AA Fundamentals Webinar #4: What we’ve learned from history

Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert dug back into social movements through the ages. What did they discover? All successful activism has been artistic activism. Through examples, going back thousands of years, we examine the lessons from creative movements of the past, finding the kernels of ideas you can apply in your work today. Many workshop …

C4AA Fundamentals Webinar #3: What is Artistic Activism?

Founders of the Center for Artistic Activism answer the question, what do we mean when we say “artistic activism” anyway? Through looking at disparate examples, we expand our thinking on the the ways creativity can affect power. (Many past participants cite this section as one of the most inspiring.) But we’ll also talk about common …

C4AA Fundamentals Webinar #2: Building a Creative Campaign

Founders of the Center for Artistic Activism discuss how an effective campaign for change is structured. We cover goals, objectives, tactics, and strategy and how you can use these concepts in your creative practice and/or collective organizing. C4AA Fundamentals is a free webinar series is designed to cover the core concepts of artistic activism for …

C4AA Fundamentals Webinar: How to Use Creativity in Organizing

The founders of the Center for Artistic Activism discuss some basic principles of using creativity in organizing and pitfalls to avoid. This webinar is designed to provide some structure to your thinking and planning around how to creatively, and effectively, respond in the weeks to come. The webinar is done and we have a video …

Most creative election ad of 2016?

We don’t agree with his policies, but this ad is funny and very effective: Gerald Daugherty, a Republican county commissioner in the Austin-area Travis County, has produced one of the best ad-spots of the season, depicting him as a politics-obsessed public servant whose long-suffering, side-eyeing wife can’t wait for him to be re-elected so she …

Open Call: Art Action Academy in Dublin

ARE YOU AN ARTIST OR CREATIVE PRACTITIONER BASED IN EUROPE? ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CHALLENGING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ABOUT SEX WORK? If you answered yes to both these questions, THEN YOU SHOULD APPLY TO ATTEND OUR DECEMBER ART ACTION ACADEMY! The Center for Artistic Activism and the Open Society Foundations in collaboration with the International Committee …

OPEN CALL: Arts Action Academy at Queens Museum

You all probably know that we here at the  Center for Artistic Activism regularly train Activists to create more like Artists. But you might not know that we also train Artists to strategize more like Activists. We’ve done these Art Action Academy workshops everyplace from MFA programs in Portland, Oregon to NYC public schools to …

Familiar vs. Novel – Everything is a Remix

First, if you’ve never seen Everything is a Remix, go watch it now. It’s a great primer on creativity, originality, and copyright. Recently Kirby Ferguson posted a new installment about the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. Towards the end he makes a point about a sweet spot existing between the familiar and the …

10: Professional Wrestling

Episode 10: Professional Wrestling! This time the gang heads to Newark to see WWE Smackdown live! This is the first time any of them have seen professional wrestling live, and the most wrestling any of them had ever seen in their lives. Why? Professional wrestling, love it or hate it, is massively poplular. With over …

And what do I do now? Using Data Visualization for Social Change

Last week, the C4AA’s Steve Lambert attended the Responsible Data Forum on Data Visualization. In this article, Lambert discusses how data visualizations for social change can leverage emotion to achieve objectives. Those who visualize data can be reluctant to sully themselves in the messy world of emotions and empathy. If your goal is social change …

9: Zumba

Episode 9: Zumba! We took a Zumba class with Laci Chisolm of Fit 4 Dance and learn about real leadership. Have you donated to the Center for Artistic Activism yet? We need money for lasers! Show Notes: “Hard work can be fun!” This episode builds on our Mani-Pedi episode about self care and our TGI …