In Late Night comedian Amber Ruffin’s latest “Amber Says What” she asks a lot of valuable evaluation questions of the Trump administration’s latest political spectacle. We may start incorporating these into our work. Some highlights: Why this? What was the desired effect? Why is this happening and what is happening? Did you know this was …
Category Archives: News
COVID-19 Dolly Parton “Jolene” Parody for Free the Vaccine
We’ve been training an international group of volunteers for the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign. Our goal is ensuring publicly-funded diagnostic tools, treatment, and the COVID-19 vaccine will be sustainably priced, available to all and free at the point-of-delivery. The participants have been learning how to use artistic activism to reach these goals. We …
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Advocacy Innovation Lab: Free the Vaccine for COVID-19
“Free the Vaccine for COVID-19” is the first implementation of our Advocacy Innovation Labs, designed to train participants in artistic activism while generating new, creative, and innovative tactics to solve urgent problems. The Issue: What’s the Problem We’re Addressing? It’s hard to imagine the day we read the headline “COVID-19 Immunizations Begin.” However, history shows …
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Op-Ed: Free the Vaccine, Free the People
“Signing the Open COVID Pledge is therefore not merely a technicality or detail about licensing policy, but a matter of ensuring racial justice in healthcare and opposing institutional violence against Black people.” by Navya Dasari and Joyce Farley (of FreeTheVaccine.org) This post also appears on Medium.com As protesters around the country convene in large numbers …
How can we measure the impact of art and creativity?
Imagine you want to help young people in West Africa use their creative skills to engage their peers in political dialogue about gender violence. Or you want to train artists and scientists to collaborate on truly innovative and creative ways to teach people about pressing science issues like climate change. Or you want to create …
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Stop Hate for Profit: Facebook Ad Boycott
The Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and the Color Of Change have called for business to boycott advertising on Facebook “to stand in solidarity with our most deeply held American values of freedom, equality and justice.” Their effort is gaining momentum, with brands singing on like Patagonia, the North Face, REI, Magnolia Pictures, and Ben & …
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Alumni Anne Basting’s Creative Care
Anne Basting (alumni of our School for Creative Activism) is a pioneer in dementia and elder Care. She “developed a radical approach that combines methods from the world of theater and improvisation with evidence-based therapies that connect people using their own creativity and imagination.” Her new book is called Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to …
C4AA on the Nice Work! Podcast
Rebecca Bray and Steve Lambert were interviewed for the Nice Work! Podcast from the Super Nice Club. Most of us want a safe, thoroughly tested vaccine for COVID-19, stat. But, what good is a vaccine if the people who need it most can’t afford it? NO GOOD is the correct answer. Which is why the …
Artistic Activism during the Civil Rights Movement
From the mid 1950s to the early 1970s the Civil Rights movement involved tens of thousand of people and changed the civil rights for millions. It was also a consciously creative campaign.
Update on Free the Vaccine for Covid-19
Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 is a campaign to ensure equal access to treatments, testing and a vaccine for COVID-19. The campaign is run through our Advocacy Innovation Lab, a platform, training ground, and methodology that combines social justice organizing and creativity to advance advocacy work quickly and collaboratively, online. What’s the Problem We’re Addressing …
Call: Impact Prize to end mass incarceration
The Frieze Impact Prize is a new award to recognize artists’ role in the movement to end mass incarceration in the U.S. The prize seeks to lift up artwork that highlights the inequitable aspects of the criminal justice system and challenges its racial bias. Special consideration will be given to work by justice-involved artists. If there is anyone you know …
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Webinar #27: Avram Finkelstein
Avram discusses collectivity and communicating in public space for participants of the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign. At our last Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 meeting some participants said they wanted to know more about working in collectives. We immediately went to Avram Finkelstein who has a wealth of experience with working in collectives …
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 …
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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 …
DS4SI has a new book
Center for Artistic Activism advisory board member Kenny Bailey and his team at the Design Studio for Social Invervention have a new book: Ideas Arrangements Effects – System Design and Social Justice. With this simple premise, DS4SI makes the case for arrangements as a rich and overlooked terrain for social justice and world building. Unpacking how ideas …
Amazon, Facebook, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Sandia join “Open COVID Pledge”
Last week the Center for Artistic Activism joined Universities Allied for Essential Medicines in signing the Open COVID Pledge: Immediate action is required to halt the COVID-19 Pandemic and treat those it has affected. It is a practical and moral imperative that every tool we have at our disposal be applied to develop and deploy …
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LM Bogad’s The Plague Podcast
The Center for Artistic Activism Advisory Board member, L.M. Bogad has a new podcast. Check out episode three with Merith Basey, who is working with us on the Free The Vaccine for COVID-19 campaign. I’m pleased to announce the launch of my podcast, THE PLAGUE. It’s a podcast where we look, not just at the …
The Salk Labs: Week One
As you probably know, the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 Campaign was conceived of by the Center for Artistic Activism and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines mere weeks ago. We officially launched our first week of online training and activities last Wednesday, April 8th. Hundreds of activists, artists, and others from 29 countries joined Salk …
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 …
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