Artists Engaging in Social Change 1
by Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, co-directors
Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts
Every moment of major social change requires a collective leap of imagination.
Jeff Chang, writer and cultural commentator
Artists and cultural organizations are applying the power of the artistic imagination to
inform, inspire, engage, animate, and motivate social action. The arts and artists empower
by validating people’s stories and perspectives and by bringing people together to
discover shared goals and strength. They can broaden citizens’ voices and participation,
offering a welcoming entry point to those who have not felt power in the civic realm
before. They can enhance the quality and capacity for dialogue—prompting deeper
exploration and shifting contentious public debate to a more open and receptive space for
listening, expressing, and truly hearing alternative views. The arts can promote greater
awareness and understanding of issues, contributing to shifts in thinking and attitude.
Evident in all of these possibilities is the power of the arts and humanities to animate
democracy.
There are many terms and no generally accepted definitions in the realm of democratic
engagement and social change. When the arts are activated to engage people and make
change it may be labeled as: civic engagement, community organizing, social change,
social justice, participatory democracy, community building, or community development.
This paper primarily uses the terms “social activism” and “civic engagement.” Social
activism reflects action to make change that ensures inclusion, equity, fairness, and
justice. It is intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental
change. Civic engagement as used here is broadly defined to mean the commitment to
participate in and contribute to the improvement of one’s neighborhood, community, and
nation. It takes many forms: proactively becoming better informed on issues,
participating in public forums, volunteering, voting, taking action and exerting leadership
to make positive change. Both civic engagement and social activism can have impact on
individuals, organizations, and community.
This paper provides background and context for supporting and strengthening the role of
arts and artists as players in social activism. The paper draws on the experience of
Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, which fosters civic
engagement through arts and culture, as well as the observations and field knowledge of
Animating Democracy’s co-directors. Information and ideas are organized under four
headings:
1. The Historical Context: Artists Reflecting Society/Making Change
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The Surdna Foundation commissioned Animating Democracy to prepare a background paper that
provides historical context and highlights a spectrum of roles that the arts and artists play in civic life. This
paper was originally presented as part of Surdna’s February 8-9, 2010 Board of Trustees meeting.
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2. The Power of Artists Engaging in Social Change: A Spectrum of Roles and Continuum of Impact
3. The Current Context
1. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Artists Reflecting Society/Making Change
Individual works of art, past and present, as well as broader cultural movements, have
reflected and commented on contemporary issues. Many have endured the test of time,
continuing to be presented and attesting to artistic excellence and the resonance of the
original ideas embodied in the work. For example, in his hallmark film, The Battleship
Potemkin (1925), Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein attempted to interpret and give
emotional reinforcement to Soviet spectators and Bolshevik sympathizers. The film
depicts a mutiny aboard a naval ship, drawing on events that occurred during an
unsuccessful uprising against the Russian monarchy in 1905. Stylistically, Eisenstein
developed an “intellectual montage”—the juxtaposition of unrelated images to generate
associations in the viewer’s mind—conveying his message in powerful, metaphoric ways.
Eisenstein emphasized the centrality of the viewer’s response, “creating a shock that
would lead to audience perception and knowledge.” Another work, The Green Table, a
ballet created in 1932 by Kurt Jooss, reflects through allegory the German
choreographer’s foretelling disquiet with the prevailing social currents during the
interlude between the two World Wars.
The Harlem Renaissance (1919–1929) was an early context for various models of
African-American activist art. The Depression-era Federal Art Project and Federal
Theater Project of the WPA employed artists in all disciplines, emphasizing their social
role. WPA art often documented or addressed contemporary issues.
Movements of the 1950s and 1960s, especially the civil rights movement and the black
consciousness era, were significant in linking the arts with advances toward social justice.
The Free Southern Theater created in 1963 served as an educational and cultural wing of
the Freedom Movement through a focus on community involvement, educational work,
and touring. In the tumultuous 1960s, broad questioning of the status quo once again
found expression in the arts. In that era, “identity politics”—traditionally
underrepresented and misrepresented groups coming together to express themselves—
became central in activist art. 1 Efforts in 1965 by Cesar Chavez to unionize California
farm workers launched a national mobilization of Chicanos known as La Causa, and art
became closely aligned with the movement’s political goal of economic democracy. El
Teatro Campesino was created in the 1960s as a political organizing tool for farm
workers. The barrio mural movement, reaching back to Diego Rivera, is perhaps the most
enduring social art movement nationwide, creating murals that promote an awareness of
the past, proposing strategies for the future, and involving community members in a form
of broad-based public education.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of cultural democracy provided a guiding vision for
grassroots artists and cultural workers in the U.S. “Cultural democracy is predicated on
the idea that diverse cultures should be treated as essentially equal in multicultural
societies,” Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard write.” 2
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During this same period, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), a
massive federal jobs program, was crafted as a government response to high
unemployment. CETA put artists to work in schools, housing projects, community
centers, and social service agencies. The program helped launch the careers of many
artists working in communities and spawned the creation of many now mature
community-based and culturally specific arts organizations that are celebrating their 25th,
30th, and 35th anniversaries. 3
In the late 1990s, responding to a growing concern that opportunities for civic dialogue
were diminishing in this country, Americans for the Arts conducted a national study
that mapped arts and civic dialogue and engagement activity of the last part of the 20th
century. The study observed that many artists were further developing a communitybased practice in which the artistic process, as well as
“In telling our stories, we identify what is
product, could effectively connect people with
important to us. By listening to the stories
community life, stimulate public dialogue, and promote
of others, we find out what is important to
action.
them; and by listening and telling together,
we have the possibility of creating a
Artists such as John O’Neal of Junebug Productions
clearer sense of what our community is
and what our collective priorities are…we
exemplify this intention. Concerned with persistent issues
can take those stories and help craft our
of civil rights and racial inequality in America since his
way to the future.”
involvement in the civil rights movement, O’Neal uses
John O’Neal
story and theater to inspire and motivate social action.
The Environment Justice Project in New Orleans which mobilized New Orleans residents
living in a corridor of industrial pollution is one example.
The study revealed that cultural institutions, too, were increasingly exploring their civic
roles and community-based practice. In the 1990s and early 2000s, arts organizations
were encouraged and supported by initiatives such as the Museums and Communities
program of the American Association of Museums, and through funding programs like
the Rockefeller Foundation’s PACT (Partnerships Affirming Community
Transformation) and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ Arts Partners
Program, supported by the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund and the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation’s investment in youth media was
another significant support. These initiatives were highly influential. They urged arts
organizations to redefine the way they worked in relationship with community and to
consider the social and civic context of their programs. All of these initiatives have
ended. In some cases, foundation priorities simply shifted. In other cases, foundations
moved from project to organizational support or established sustainability initiatives to
increase the stability of maturing arts organizations.
In 1999, against this backdrop, Americans for the Arts designed and implemented
Animating Democracy to foster artistic activity that encourages civic dialogue on
important contemporary issues. The initiative responded to a growing concern that
opportunities for civic dialogue in this country were diminishing. The premise was that,
with focus and intention, artists and cultural organization leaders can use the inherent
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power of the arts to stimulate civic dialogue and engagement. At the same time, valuable
artistic investigation and innovative aesthetic work can result. With The Ford
Foundation’s investment, Animating Democracy aimed to strengthen the role and
organizational capacity of arts and cultural institutions in civic dialogue.
At the center of the initiative, Animating Democracy provided grants and advisory
support to 35 cultural organizations for projects that experimented with or deepened
existing approaches to arts-based civic
In some Animating Democracy projects, cultural concerns
dialogue. Projects addressed
emerged as civic concerns.
longstanding and pervasive issues facing
Cultural democracy
The rights of all cultures and peoples to define,
communities and the country, such as
sustain, and perpetuate their own cultures
race relations, class, water conservation,
Cultural preservation
growth and development, and
Identity, traditions, and heritage sites
immigration. Animating Democracy’s
Cultural representation
Authentic and self-determined representation in
design, linking project support with
such public arenas as tourism)
technical assistance and cross-discipline
Cultural
equity
peer exchange, created a learning
Access to funding and other resources that can help
community and served to foster critical
cultures thrive
reflection and more rigorous program
standards. Ripple effects in the form of new and sustained collaborations, new projects,
and heightened commitment to work in the civic realm are still being felt.
2. THE POWER OF ARTISTS ENGAGING IN SOCIAL CHANGE:
A Spectrum of Roles and Continuum of Impact
The value of the artist is in the mind that sees things differently than a civil rights lawyer.
Anna Deavere Smith, theater artist
There are many and varied ways that arts and culture have been applied to a broader
public good. To help capture this range, the accompanying illustration offers one way to
envision the spectrum of roles that artists and the arts effectively play along a continuum
of outcomes to which they commonly aspire and that they often achieve. (See the
illustration, Artists Engaging in Social Change.)
Artists and arts organizations play a critical role in reflecting society. Many assert that the
creation of art, in and of itself, is a civic act, consciously or unconsciously linked to and
reflecting social and political context. Attuned to the social, political, and cultural
currents of their time, artists’ work embodies and often comments—subtly or boldly—on
the issues of the time. Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America, and Shepard Fairey’s ubiquitous HOPE image of Barack Obama are just a few
iconic examples. Artists in every corner of the world continue to create and present works
that mirror the conditions we must confront, herald issues that are nascent, probe the
questions others may not yet ask, and reveal the truths that are difficult to confront. By
their mere creation and presence, and through their power, such works of art can enter the
public consciousness and public discourse, and heighten awareness, shift attitudes, and
move people to take action.
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ARTISTS ENGAGING IN SOCIAL CHANGE
THE POWER OF THE ARTS & ARTISTS
A SPECTRUM OF ROLES
THE ARTS REFLECT
Artists and the arts reflect society. Attuned to the social, political, and cultural currents of their time, artists’ work reveals untold stories and embodies
and heralds the issues of the time. Artists’ work then enters the public consciousness and public discourse. Artists and cultural organizations also
increasingly play a more deliberate role in making social change. Beyond reflection:
THE ARTS ENGAGE
THE ARTS ANIMATE
THE ARTS INFLUENCE
A CONTINUUM OF IMPACT
AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE,
DISCOURSE
enhanced
ATTITUDES,
VALUES
confirmed or
shifted
CAPACITY
what people know
what people think
and feel
what people have
and can do
what people do
• Fostering reflection
• Making information inviting and
accessible
• Deepening understanding of
complex issues
• Giving voice, bringing forward
new or different perspectives
• Enabling, enhancing, deepening
dialogue
• Helping people see relationships
among local, national, global
issues
• Generating hope, pride, sense
of possibility
• Expressing, clarifying ideals,
values
• Promoting respect
• Motivating people to learn
• Building social capital
(bonds and bridges
between people)
• Developing creative skills
and strategies for
organizing and advocating
• Increasing the status of
disenfranchised groups
• Developing leadership
and persuasiveness
• Enhancing organizing
strategies
• Increasing sustainable
assets
• Expanding who participates
• Increasing civic participation
and engagement
• Motivating people to
engage, act
• Mobilizing people
increased
PARTICIPATION,
ACTION
promoted &
enhanced
PRACTICES,
POLICIES
improved &
supported
what change is
sustained
• Improving access and
equity
• Diversifying leadership
• Adopting policy change
Chart developed by Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, in collaboration with the Surdna Foundation.
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As we have seen through both historic and contemporary examples in the previous
section, artists and arts organizations are applying the power of the artistic imagination in
purposeful ways to contribute to social change. They are directly engaging communities
in creative process and social action. They are animating public process and dialogue
through art. They are influencing what gets attention in the public sphere and who
participates, as well as perspective and opinion. The arts and artists are empowering
people by validating people’s stories and perspectives and by bringing people together to
discover shared goals and strength.
When the arts and artists are integrated with practices of civic engagement and social
activism, they can and are making significant civic contributions as catalysts, conveners,
forums, and forms of civic engagement and social action. They can:
• Enhance awareness, knowledge, and discourse around issues;
• Clarify values and confirm or shift attitudes;
• Increase capacity—skills, resources, status—to engage in civic concerns;
• Promote effective participation and action; and
• Improve systems and policies that ensure social justice.
While some artists’ work may focus on a single outcome, such as raising awareness or
shifting attitudes around an issue, it is often the case that the work operates at multiple
levels and contributes to change in more than one of these outcome areas.
3. THE CURRENT CONTEXT
I’ve come to see this constant re-visioning and re-defining as a driving force in the creative
process of democracy, a process that’s not maintained in a fixed and settled consensus, but one
that has been historically powered forward by argumentation, dissent, protest and bold
imagination. I’m talking about this need to perpetually calibrate the meaning of America as
something that’s deep in the cultural and mythic DNA….this struggle to re-vision and re-define is
not new. What is new is the context in which we are wrestling with these ideas. The stakes and
how high they are, that’s what’s new.
Sekou Sundiata, artist
Democracy is a work in progress as the late Sekou Sundiata eloquently conveys. But we
are also at a propitious moment to advance the role of artists and the arts in strengthening
our democracy. The issues are especially urgent. Civic engagement and social activism
are being reinvigorated in the context of a new generation and a new administration.
Interests are converging across sectors and divides and interdisciplinary ways of working
are acknowledged as necessary to deal with complex issues and problems.
Highlighted here are relevant directions, conditions, trends, and momentum that
contribute to this fertile period, in the realms of: a) the arts; b) community organizing;
and c) civic engagement.
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a) The Arts
The changing demographics of the United States are underscoring the crucial
contributions of small and mid-sized community-based arts organizations as key
players in a thriving culture and a healthy democracy. A segment of arts organizations,
once considered the margins of the arts field, has emerged at the center of a more
expansive vision of the arts. Culturally specific organizations and those who authentically
engage increasingly diverse members of communities are serving as vital civic as well as
cultural centers. 4 Among the more well known of such groups are the Wing Luke Asian
Museum in Seattle, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, CA, the
National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. These
groups, and a whole new generation of artists and organizations, include people of color
and other leaders who hold as fiercely to values of equality, empowerment, and
engagement, as they do to the pursuit of artistic excellence.
Community-based cultural organizations have thrived in the shifting demographic
currents. Their missions and programs often address the influx of new populations with a
keen understanding of the historical legacy of racial and cultural inequity. Many operate
as arts activists with explicit theories of change.
The Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, photo: Wing Luke Asian Museum
An increasing number of artists are gravitating toward and being prepared as agents in
community-based arts, civic engagement, and social activism. Americans for the Arts’
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National Arts Index released in January 2010 indicates that demand for arts education is
up as more college-bound high school seniors are completing four years of arts and
music. The number of college art degrees conferred annually has grown by 45,000 over
the past decade.
A study issued in 2008 by Imagining America, a national consortium of 80 colleges and
universities advancing public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design, documents
increasing numbers of individual courses, certificates, and degree programs in
community-based arts practice. 5 At least six art schools across the country offer
undergraduate or graduate programs and scores more have emerged at other higher
education institutions. The University of San Francisco, for example, offers a B.A. in
Performing Arts and Social Justice. Columbia College in Chicago is well recognized for
its Masters in Arts Management with a concentration in Youth and Community
Development.
Training institutes that are offered by leading community-based artists including Urban
Bush Women, Sojourn Theater, Cornerstone Theater, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange,
and Crossroads have experienced steady and, in some cases, increasing demand. Urban
Bush Women’s Summer Institute, which recently relocated to New Orleans for a
sustained period in order to bolster the work of local artists as well as artists from across
the country, has had to consider expanding its training offerings.
Urban Bush Women, National Conference on Arts and Civic Engagement
What constitutes authentic and excellent work remains a crucial concern as more and
more artists and arts organizations work in civic engagement and social activism. Over
the past decade, artists and others involved in arts for change work have begun to
articulate meaningful criteria for assessing quality arts for change work. Animating
Democracy has played an ongoing role to synthesize criteria
“Young people and seniors make critical
for excellence that consider both aesthetic excellence and
judgments about what they see on the street.
social impact. Such criteria consider qualities of excellent
Young people don’t want to be involved in a
kiddie art project. They want to be part of
process as well as product, and the value of the overall
something that has aesthetic value. Bad
project within its social context. Criteria consider integrity of
aesthetics in the name of good community work
is not acceptable.”
Judy Baca, mural artist,
Social and Public Art Resource
Center
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intent and the degree to which the creative work and project are valued by the people for
whom they are intended. Such criteria encourage accountability and help to prevent
inauthentic, exploitative, or even well intentioned but naïve efforts that may do more
harm than good.
The particular challenge of measuring social and civic impact of this work has been a
dominant concern for arts practitioners. Cultural and community leaders constantly
struggle to measure “social change.” Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement
Impact Initiative, initially funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is making inroads to
assist both practitioners and funders by bringing together existing tools and frameworks
for assessing social impact as well as developing frameworks of common social
outcomes and indicators.
b) Community Organizing
Community organizing and arts fields are networking, collaborating on projects, and
increasingly exploring how to coordinate efforts around common interests. The Obama
administration is providing an energizing context for the arts and organizing fields. A
May 2009 White House briefing of artists and creative organizers
On May 12th, 2009, more than 60
was considered momentous because it was the first time this
artists and creative organizers engaged
particular mix of participants was acknowledged by an
in civic participation, community
administration.
development, education, social justice
activism, and philanthropy came
In September 2009, The Opportunity Agenda, an organization that
together for a White House briefing on
Art, Community, Social Justice, and
aims to build the national will to expand opportunity in America in
National Recovery.
partnership with advocates, organizers, and policymakers,
convened the Creative Change retreat. It brought together artists, advocates, media
makers, organizers and funders to explore how the intersection of activism and art can
move society toward a vision of social justice. One outgrowth of the convening is a focus
on the integration of arts, cultural, and new media strategies that promote the inclusion,
integration, and human rights of immigrants in the United States.
The Arts & Democracy project, based within State Voices, has been an active leader and
thread in efforts to encourage what it calls “bridge work” between organizers and artists.
State Voices aims to bring to scale a national network that helps grassroots organizations
win shared policy and civic engagement victories and build long-term power. Arts &
Democracy has been committed to documenting on-the-ground arts and organizing work
and to build momentum to enlist the power of arts and culture as a catalyst for action,
particularly by activists and policymakers.
c) Civic Engagement
Civic engagement has become the focus of attention within and across many sectors
and fields. There is a clear resurgence of interest in civic engagement as an expression of
a healthy democracy and as a means to make inroads on critical issues that press upon us.
In 2008, the annual National Arts Policy Roundtable, a program of Americans for the
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Arts and the Sundance Preserve, took up the topic of “The Arts and Civic Engagement:
Strengthening the 21st Century Community.” This gathering brought together
government leaders, funders, educators, business leaders, media, and others to discuss
“the opportunities and strategies available through the arts to meet the challenges that we
as citizens of our communities and of the world face.” Among the sectors explored at the
Roundtable were:
Civic sector: Civic leaders and agencies are thinking critically about the shortcomings
of standard public engagement as they look for ways to better engage the knowledge and
experience of community members toward creating lasting change. The mayor of
Portland, OR, for example, invited Sojourn Theatre Company to apply its civic theater
practice to animate a public planning process. Theater artists helped residents imagine the
future they wanted for Portland. Citizen feedback, gathered through Sojourn’s poetic
documentary process, became part of the mayor’s vision plan to guide city development.
In Portland, ME, artist Marty Pottenger works in residence within the City’s Police,
Public Works, and Human Service departments to begin to address issues of equity and
diversity through the arts.
Police Poetry & Photo Calendar image and verse from the Art at Work initiative, City of Portland, ME
photo: Officer Karl Geib. poem, Officer Alissa Poisson
Higher Education: Colleges and universities are initiating new programs to foster civic
values and commitment in the next generation of civic leaders and citizens. While the
service learning model prevails, there is acknowledgement that many civic engagement
programs focus primarily on student learning and have been imbalanced in terms of
benefits to communities and a broader social good. The Community Arts Convening and
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Research Project, supported by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, has supported
universities that are teaching their students how to use the arts for community change. It
is a national platform for the work of the universities with degree-granting programs in
arts and community building. The Project is coordinated by Maryland Institute College of
Art.
Youth: The arts add value in effective youth citizenry and social activism efforts.
Cultural organizations, ranging from theaters for young audiences to community cultural
centers to museums are challenging youth to express their views about social issues at
deep personal levels, to think about the collective good, and to take action.
With young people especially, there are reciprocal benefits for both the arts and civic
engagement when the two are integrated. The arts can create safe environments to
explore identity, culture, personal life experience, history, and contemporary political
situations. This is particularly true for youth who have experienced trauma or
disenfranchisement. In Tucson, AZ, for example, through photography and writing,
young immigrants and refugees in the Finding Voice program develop a better
understanding of their Tucson neighborhood and U.S. culture. But Finding Voice youth
also use their creative work as a catalyst for public dialogue in association with
exhibitions and presentations at other community forums. Young people’s photographs
have been exhibited in the Tucson Vice-Mayor’s office which led to a chance to exhibit
in the U.S. Senate and to present their stories and concerns about immigration and
refugee issues at a Congressional briefing.
Finding Voice project participants in Washington, D.C. in 2008
photo: findingvoiceproject.org
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Aesthetic forms that are part of contemporary youth culture, such as hip-hop, poetry,
spoken word, youth media, and popular music, embrace themes crucial to self and social
expression. They provide a forum for activism, especially for young people of color. Hip
hop has anchored the work of many pioneering youth arts organizations’ work, such as Youth
Speaks and New WORLD Theater’s Project 2050. Artists such as Rha Goddess have
employed hip hop to address issues of mental health among young urban African
Americans. Hip hop has also been an organizing and mobilizing strategy for groups like
the League of Young Voters and the Hip Hop Congress. There is a growing field of
youth-driven music spaces whose leaders believe that music is a uniquely powerful way
to connect young people to community activism. The All Ages Movement Project, a
network of such community-based music organizations, is helping to provide useful
resources, information, and to document this movement. 6 Another organization, Air
Traffic Control, helps musicians to effectively link their work to social justice. New
developments in creative technologies in the form of games, virtual worlds, and mobile
digital devices have tremendous potential to attract and motivate youth participation and
to even create new civic space.
Rha Goddess in LOW, part of the Hip Hop Mental Health Project
IN CLOSING
At this moment in time, the stakes are high to create space for diverse voices in public
discourse and compelling new ways to encourage action on pressing issues that face this
country. In addition to being the foundation of a thriving culture, artists have
demonstrated their potency to address social goals toward building healthy communities
and a healthy democracy. Across many sectors, artists and the arts are being called upon
to contribute their unique powers of imagination to bring forth new ways to know and
understand an increasingly complex world. When artists can realize their potential as
artists and as effective players in social change, they can contribute to critical social
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concerns, advance aesthetic achievement, and work toward the fullest appreciation of the
contributions of artists and art in our society.
1
Jan Cohen-Cruz. An Introduction to Community Art and Activism. (n.d.). Retrieved 29 March 2009 from
Community Arts Network website:
http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2002/02/an_introduction.php
2
Donald Adams and Arlene Goldbard. Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development. New York:
Rockefeller Foundation, 2001.
3
Ibid., 53.
4
Chew, Ron. “Community-based Arts Organizations: A New Center of Gravity.” Washington, D.C.:
Americans for the Arts/Animating Democracy, 2009.
http://americansforthearts.org/animatingdemocracy/pdf/reading_room/New_Center_of_Gravity.pdf
5
Dudley Cocke, Jan Cohen-Cruz, and Arlene Goldbard. “The Curriculum Project Report: Culture and
Community Development in Higher Education.” Syracuse, NY: Imagining America, 2008.
http://imaginingamerica.org/reports.html
6
Stewart, Shannon. “Why Build a Movement Among Youth-driven Music Spaces?” Wiretap. April 30,
2008. http://www.wiretapmag.org/activism/43525/
Return to Guidelines for “Artists Engaging in Social Change”
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