View highlights from our first 15 years.
2009
“College of Tactical Culture” workshop at Eyebeam in New York City where the idea for The Center for Artistic Activism was born.
2010
The Center interviews artistic activists, researches theory and history of the practice, and develops training curriculum.
2011
First training workshop held with anti-segregation activists in Mebane, North Carolina.
2013
First international workshop with maternal healthcare activists in Nairobi, Kenya.
2014
First workshop in Skopje, North Macedonia, launching a multi-year relationship with artistic activists in the Western Balkans region.
2015
First workshop with sex worker activists in Cape Town, South Africa, initiating a multi-year collaboration with Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT).
2016
First workshop with staff and program directors of a non-profit organization, Open Society Foundations, New York.
The Æffect Project, researching the assessment and impact of artistic activism, starts.
Webinar series in response to the 2016 U.S. elections, featuring global creative activists, begins.
2017
First Accelerator Mentoring Program, with SWEAT in South Africa.
First workshop training staff of a major global advocacy organization, with Greenpeace.
First workshop in Conakry, Guinea, with regional artists and activists, beginning a multi-year relationship with artistic activists in West Africa.
2018
The Copenhagen Experiment, a public experiment testing the effectiveness of creative vs. conventional activism, is conducted in Denmark.
Regional Creative Hubs project begins, linking artists, activists, and journalists working on anti-corruption campaigns in West Africa and the Western Balkans.
2019
First organizational research and assessment consultancy, A Blade of Grass, New York.
First collaboration with Guerilla Science, bringing C4AA’s research and training to creative science advocacy.
The Æffect App, a free online, interactive planning and assessment tool, goes live.
2020
Free the Vaccine Campaign begins, training hundreds of artists and activists around the globe online working in teams on creative campaigns for equitable access to vaccines for COVID.
Launch of Unstoppable Voters, a multi-year project working with dozens of local voting rights organizations across the USA to integrate creativity into their campaigns.
2021
Free the Vaccine Campaign begins, training hundreds of artists and activists around the globe online working in teams on creative campaigns for equitable access to vaccines for COVID.
First training-of-the-trainers workshops are held in North Macedonia, Bosnia, and Senegal.
The Art of Activism, a book version of C4AA’s training program, is published.
Revolutionizing Activism, C4AA’s online discussion series, starts.
A 16-part online training program for Greenpeace climate advocates across Southeast Asia begins.
2022
The Utopia Project exhibit opens at the Smithsonian.
Learning Labs, a series of online trainings inspired by The Art of Activism, begins.
Launch of Center for Artistic Activism’s first fellowship program for advocacy staff working on voting rights.
2023
The Creative Campaigns Toolkit, providing resources for advocacy groups, is released.
C4AA’s first conference, Making the Impossible Possible Summit for voting advocates, is hosted in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Unstoppable Voters project reaches over 1000 voting advocates supported across 300 actions in 29 states.
The Artistic Activism Research Co-Lab, an international group of scholars and artists devoted to researching artistic activism, is established.
2024
Faculty Fellowship program begins, working with faculty and students on creative advocacy for voting rights.
The Mapping Artistic Activism Project, an online mapping of artistic activist organizations around the world, goes live.
The Artistic Activism Field Tests, a program to stimulate risk-taking and prototyping through funding and mentoring experimental interventions, results in dozens of actions to increase civic engagement.
You are reading a portion of our 15 Years of Impact report.
Learn more about the impact report and our nine global case studies. Here’s an example:
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Transformative Impact Framework
By analyzing data from surveys, interviews, feedback, and statements from 15 years of Center for Artistic Activism alumni, key impact themes emerged. Initially identifying 30 themes, we condensed them into eight categories.
