Center for Artistic Activism

CAA runs several projects to bring together artists, activists, designers, attorneys, and others who are interested in becoming more politically efficacious. For example, the School for Creative Activism is a participatory workshop for grassroots activists that infuses community organising and civic engagement with culture and creativity. Funded by the Open Society Foundations, this programme is based on the premise that "[t]he first rule of activism is to know the terrain and use it to your advantage and the current political topography is one of symbols and signs, images and expressions. This is the avant-garde of activism today. From small community organizations to international NGOs, visionary activists are looking to broaden their base of appeal and the reach of their message by employing culture alongside more traditional organizing practices."

To cite another example, the Art Action Academy (AAA) is a weekend training designed to help socially engaged artists make their work more impactful and better evaluate the effect of their work. Instead of training grassroots change-makers to become more creative, the AAA trains socially engaged artists to become more effective change-makers. AAA was inaugurated in the Fall of 2012 with a visit to the I-School, a New York City public high school. There, AAA led a class of teenaged art students through an introduction to creative activism in history, sharing current examples of art that works politically. After considering the real-world politics that they would like to influence, students developed their own creative activist projects in later classes. The AAA returned to lead students in an "artivist" critique - a traditional practice honed in art schools and adapted for the constructive criticism and support of creative projects designed to bring about social change.

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Democracy & Governance, Rights.