A Year of Unstoppable Voters

25 projects. 100 passionate people trained. And millions reached with creativity, humor, and hope: all to protect the freedom to vote. In August 2020, the Center for Artistic Activism put out an open call for creative, strategic, risk-taking projects to support voters and voting in the coming US elections. Within one week we received over …

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, …

Felicia Young

My theory is one of creative collaboration and joyous affirmation — activating change through the inspirational power of the arts and affecting the individual on a deep emotional level, which can be imperceptible, as well as through more visible and public, celebratory and collective community action. People may look to statistics and metrics, such as numbers engaged and gardens saved, which we …

No Longer Interested

In 2014, Center Co-Director Steve Lambert was asked to contribute to A Blade of Grass’ ‘Growing Dialogue‘, a series of practitioner-led articles and opinion pieces circling around questions of the affect and effect of art and social practice. Steve’s contribution was No Longer Interested, which you can read below… No Longer Interested I’ve worked to strike …

Guerilla Girls on Colbert!

The anonymous feminist art collective Guerrilla Girls appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night and talked about gender inequality in the art world. The collective is known for wearing gorilla masks and using the names of deceased female artists as monikers. Kathe, Zubeida, and Frida were the members that spoke with Colbert. …

School for Creative Activism: Berlin Participants Announced

Hallo! Wie geht es dir? We’re good, thanks for asking, and we’re in Berlin about to start our latest School for Creative Activism – This time we’re working on Advocacy Campaigns to Support Trans Activism in Europe, supported by Open Society Foundations.  We’ve got an incredible group of activists, artists and organizers who are taking …

Steve’s Super Hero Exercise

Here’s a great exercise to help realize your inner superhero! Super Hero Exercise Curriculum by Steve Lambert Introduction The purpose of this exercise is to help young and old discover: they have things they care about they want to communicate to others art is a form of communication as artists, they have a unique power …

ACTIPEDIA REVISITED: THE PINK CHADDI CAMPAIGN

It’s International Women’s Day! So this week, we’re taking a look at a really powerful piece of collective creative activism that managed to have a real material impact on a very troubling and potentially violent situation. The Pink Chaddi Campaign was an action devised by the “Consortium of Pub-going, Loose, and Forward Women” (PLFW) in …

Coming Soon: The Pop Culture Salvage Expeditions

A monthly podcast about the most popular, highest grossing, mainstream culture. How we can use all that bad stuff for good? In each episode an an academic, an activist, and an artist from the Center for Artistic Activism will help navigate through the garbage looking for treasure. Coming soon, subscribe now and don’t miss a …

ACTIPEDIA REVISITED: WOMEN ON WAVES

So this week we’re doffing our caps to the work of Women on Waves, who worked with our good friends at Yes Lab to create the www.diesalforwomen.com website ‘Misopolis’, a fabricated fashion brand which claimed to provide free abortion pills to its female workers in order to set them free and to create a fun …

ACTIPEDIA REVISITED: McDONALD’s VIDEOGAME

This week we’re taking a look at the McDonald’s Videogame, where you own and operate a McDonald’s restaurant. In the game you have the choice to try to operate ethically or make decisions like using genetically modified soy or administering bovine growth hormone. If you go the ethical route, you bankrupt the company and lose. The …

ACTIPEDIA REVISITED: PRINCESS HIJAB

‘My art has nothing to do with religion.’ This week we’re throwing the spotlight on the guerilla street art of Princess Hijab. Princess Hijab détournes advertising in public spaces: superimposing black veils onto the iconography of popular culture. ‘The Hijab is very powerful, not just religiously. It has been used in fairytales. It is part of the …

ACTIPEDIA REVISTED: PRO-CHOICE TROLLING

From the vaults of Actipedia this week we’re looking at a subtle way of subverting your local store to do your messaging for you! When Hobby Lobby, the US craft store, filed a lawsuit against a federal mandate requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives Jasmine Shea and Nathaniel Peck decided to take action. …

Actipedia revisited: Public Movement – ‘Re-Branding European Muslims’ (2012)

Each week we’ll be calling back to an example of creative activism from our website Actipedia – an open-access, user-generated database of creative activism. This week we’d like to highlight this really powerful piece of arts activism by Public Movement, a Tel Aviv based ‘performative research body’. In 2012 they created Re-Branding European Muslims to investigate conflict …

Decaying Russian Buildings Transformed into Character Art

Russian artist Nikita Nomerz art series,   “The Living Wall,” resurrects dilapidated buildings by turning them into pieces of art. In his interview with  Global Street Art, Nikita explains the reasoning behind his series…. I paint in the street, in public spaces, but I do not position myself as an invader of the city or a destroyer. I position …

Grace and Gravity – Monumental Work by El Anatsui

“In the exhibition are twelve recent monumental wall and floor sculptures, widely considered to represent the apex of Anatsui’s career. The metal wall works, created with bottle caps from a distillery in Nsukka, are pieced together to form colorful, textured hangings that take on radically new shapes with each installation. Anatsui is captivated by his …

“Living in Limbo” brings LGBT issues to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama

Living in Limbo: A contemporary photography exhibit that honors the complexities of lesbian family life by revealing authentic moments. Unfortunately the movement for LGBT rights doesn’t shift at the same pace around the country. Certain regions make strides forward – passing gay rights and marriage equality legislation – while others seem to be moving slowly …