Center for Artistic Activism

Thursday, May 2nd; 7 PM

NYU Tisch, Performance Studies Dept.
721 Broadway, 6th Floor
FREE
Photo ID required

Paul Engler, Director of the Center for the Working Poor, will speak about his experience in the anti-globalization movement after Seattle, immigrant rights marches, Occupy, how the Serbian nonviolent revolutionaries changed his life, a concrete plan to get high numbers of protesters arrested in nonviolent direct action, and ways to sustain a moment of the whirlwind of revolution.

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Not An Alternative is a hybrid arts collective and non-profit organization with a mission to affect popular understandings of events, symbols, and history. They curate and produce interventions on immaterial and material space, leveraging the tools of architecture, exhibit design, branding, and public relations.  And they are great friends of the Center for Artistic Activism!  See below for their call for interns:

Not An Alternative is seeking interns to assist with our current and upcoming projects. We’re looking for candidates who are detail-oriented, organized, and motivated. Solid communications skills and an interest in Not An Alternative’s mission are a must. A background in art, design, or previous experience working with activist mobilizations or community organizations is highly desirable. Positions are paid, and academic credit may be possible depending on the institution.

Location: Brooklyn, NY (Greenpoint)
Hours and Duration: Quarterly 2013; 20-30 hours per week
Application Deadline: Rolling until filled. STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY BY APRIL 26TH.

1) Art Production Internship
Help realize the production of Not An Alternative projects. Work in a team with Not An Alternative’s Creative Director and Principal Designer. Responsibilities include sign-making, stencil cutting, vinyl cutting and sign-making, screen-printing, basic carpentry, and basic painting. You are dexterous, detail-oriented and have a precise hand. Photography, video, and graphic skills a plus.

2) Graphic Design Internship
Seeking a junior designer with experience in typography, imaging and photo touch-ups, and strong familiarity with Adobe programs (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator). AfterEffects and HTML5 a plus. Design work to be featured online, in print publications, and in projects deployed within art institutions and in public space.

3) Social Media / Online Communications Internship
Polish your online communications, promotions, and community engagement chops using Hootsuite, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest. Get direct hands-on experience with social media outreach, organizing, and strategy development. Research and implement creative campaigns to boost the profile of art/activist projects. Additional responsibilities may include blogger engagement and maintaining the Not An Alternative website. Great skills development opportunity – work one on one with a senior online organizing and social media strategy consultant. Strong writing skills and comfort level with social media required.

4) Research and Development Internship
Not An Alternative is hiring a Research and Development intern to identify opportunities for our organization and further the development of our practice. “Socially engaged art”, “design for social innovation”, “art and politics” — these fields are exploding and so is the discourse surrounding these practices. Dive into it with research and writing for grants, residency openings, and for the development of arguments and examples used in Not An Alternative presentations and programming.

TO APPLY: Please send cover letter, CV, design portfolio or work samples (if applicable), and contact information for two references to info@notanalternative.net. Be sure to indicate which position(s) you are interested in. Please use the subject line “INTERN Application Spring/Summer 2013”

VOLUNTEERING
Volunteer opportunities are available for a number of Not An Alternative projects. Volunteers can assist with art production, design, research, social media outreach, and more. Interested applicants should send an email to info@notanalternative.net with “VOLUNTEER” in the subject line. Applicants will be contacted as opportunities arise.

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ABOUT NOT AN ALTERNATIVE
Not An Alternative is a hybrid arts collective and non-profit organization with a mission to affect popular understandings of events, symbols, and history. The group curates and produces interventions on immaterial and material space, leveraging the tools of architecture, exhibit design, branding, and public relations.

Not An Alternative’s actions, installations, and presentations have been featured within art institutions around the world, and in the public sphere, where they collaborate with community organizations and activist mobilizations. They host programs at a variety of venues, including their Brooklyn-based gallery No-Space (formerly known as The Change You Want to See Gallery).

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Apr 11, 2013, 6:30pm | Room 9206
Center for the Humanities
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Experiments in Extra-Institutional Education

What are the theoretical and political repercussions of education outside of a traditional classroom? Whether spurred on by a tidal wave of student debt, changes in technology, or new and nontraditional learning scenarios emerging from various academic disciplines, DIY education is on the rise. This workshop and roundtable brings together artists, educators, and researchers to present case studies of important experiments in this area to explore the future of creative learning outside of the conventional classroom, moving beyond questions of whether these alternative spaces can produce meaningful learning.

Mary Walling Blackburn, Anhoek School; Jen Messier and Jonathan Soma, Brooklyn Brainery; Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Abby Kluchin, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research; Haley Mellin, Bruce High Quality Foundation University; Mark Allen, Machine Project; J. Morgan Puett, Mildred’s Lane; Michael Mandiberg, New York Arts Practicum; Jon Santiago,  NYC Resistor; Yukiko Hanawa and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, Occupy University; Steve Lambert,School for Creative Activism; Nova Benway & Taeyoon Choi, The Public School; Katherine Carl and Srdjan Jovanović Weiss, School of Missing Studies; Carla Herrera-Prats, SOMA Summer; Caroline Woolard,TradeSchool.coop. Moderated by Michael Mandiberg, College of Staten Island, CUNY.

Cosponsored by Graduate Center Digital Initiatives and JustPublics@365.

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Attention New Yorkers!  This event is FREE and open to the public.  Please join us as we meet and collaborate with aspiring and seasoned creative activists.

Why is it that artists’ collectives typically focused on political activism have emerged in such numbers over the past few years? What are the specific advantages to working in a group context, but also what are the disadvantages? How does the art world (both local and global) perceive the work made by activists, informal groups, collaborations, and collectives? What is the difference between a collective as opposed to an art’s organization? Artist, writer, and activist Gregory Sholette will address these questions in a lecture presentation before leading a workshop on the theory and practice of contemporary collectivism in which participants engage in activities focused on collective problem solving while debating the practical and aesthetic issues related to civil disobedience and tactical media. Drawing on several decades of cultural organizing in New York City participants will seek to develop alternative models for how artists can work together, make decisions, avoid conflicts, engage in social change, and sustain their activities over time.

Gregory Sholette is a New York-based artist, writer, and founding member of Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D: 1980-1988), and REPOhistory (1989-2000). A graduate of The Cooper Union (BFA 1979), The University of California, San Diego (MFA 1995), and the Whitney Independent Studies Program in Critical Theory, his recent publications include It’s The Political Economy, Stupid (with Oliver Ressler, Pluto Books, 2013), Dark Matter: Art and Politics in an Age of Enterprise Culture (Pluto Press, 2011);Collectivism After Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination after 1945 (with Blake Stimson for University of Minnesota, 2007); and The Interventionists: A Users Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life (with Nato Thompson for MassMoCA/MIT Press, 2004, 2006, 2008), as well as a special issue of the journal Third Text co-edited with theorist Gene Ray on the theme “Whither Tactical Media.” Sholette”s recent public art installation “Torrent,” was on view at Printed Matter Books, his other past installation projects include: “15 Islands for Robert Moses” for the Queens Museum of Art, “Mole Light: God is Truth, Light his Shadow” for Plato’s Cave, Brooklyn, New York, and the collaborative project Imaginary Archive at Enjoy Public Art Gallery in Wellington New Zealand. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Queens College: City University of New York (CUNY), a visiting faculty member at Harvard University, and teaches an annual seminar in theory and social practice for the CCC post-graduate research program at Geneva University of Art and Design.

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Monday, April 1

12:00 – 2:00 PM

Stubbins (Room 112), Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

A visual tour of some of the most creative art/activist interventions performed in the context of the counter-globalization movement, and in contemporary urban struggles in Spain, including Las Agencias, Yomango, Pret a Revolter, and New Kids on the Black Block. Leo explores the relationship between art and activism, how creativity can be a powerful tool for social transformation, how we can have fun while fighting back, and why direct action is one of the fine arts.

Leónidas Martín is a professor at Barcelona University where he teaches New Media and Political Art. For many years, he has been developing collective projects between art and activism, some of them well known internationally (Las Agencias, Yomango, Prêt à Revolter, New Kids on the Black Block…). He writes about art and politics for blogs, journals and newspapers, has created several documentaries and movies for television and internet, and is a member of the cultural collective Enmedio (www.enmedio.info).

http://leodecerca.net/

Contact: events@gsd.harvard.edu

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We’ve received a lot of pleas for extensions, and we get it.  You’re really, really busy.  We’re extending the deadline for applications to our School For Creative Activism until March 14.  Go home, have some fun and get some rest, and make sure to get it into us in the next two weeks.

Download 2013 SCA application here.

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Mohamed Awadh Aboud

Mohamed is the proud father of two daughters. He is an outreach worker with the Omari Project, which advocates for the rights of drug users and works to slow the spread of HIV and reduce harm related to drug use. Mohamed is a hard worker, eager to learn new things and make new friends.

Mohamed Shosi

Mohamed Shosi, better known as Showsee, is a 45-year-old man who has worked as the Program Coordinator for the Omari Project since 2000.  He works on Advocacy for NSP and OST both locally and nationally to increase access to comprehensive health services for male and female drug users.

The Omari Project was established in 1995 as a community-based organization that advocates which advocates for the rights of drug users and works to slow the spread of HIV and reduce harm related to drug use. Omari provides addiction treatment in their rehab center, as well as outreach programs focusing on reduction of HIV and other blood borne infections, HTC, condoms, safe injections practices, psychosocial support, legal rights assistance among others.  The Omari Project works primarily in the north coast of Kenya, in Kilifi County of Malindi district.

Esther Nalugya

Esther is a Program Officer in charge of information & communications technology (ICT) projects with the Ugandan National Health Users’/Consumers’ Organization (UNHCO).  Esther is driven by hard work and her enthusiasm for fighting for the right to health so that patients can access quality health care. Her hobbies include reading, working with ICTs, listening to music, and eating.

Frederick Okwi

Frederick is an activist, social and development worker who has worked with various projects and advocacy teams.  He works with the Ugandan National Health Users’/Consumers’ Organization (UNHCO), where he leads, manages, organizes, and develops materials for teams and individuals. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and social administration from Makerere University and is currently a Master’s degree candidate of development studies at Uganda Martyrs University. He enjoys reading, watching documentaries, research, advocacy for health rights and urban development.

The Ugandan National Health Users’/Consumers’ Organization (UNHCO) is a national membership advocacy organization established in 1999 to advocate for the realization of the right to health for all Ugandans. Since its inception, UNHCO has been implementing programs that advocate for a strong institutionalized platform that is able to articulate voices of consumers of health goods and services. UNHCO was among the champions of the Rights Based Approach (RBA) to healthcare delivery and contributed to efforts to improve community participation and accountability. It promotes and advocates for sustainable access to affordable and quality health care services for all, based on the mutuality of rights and obligations of both the health service users and providers.  The organization spearheaded the formulation of a Patient’s Charter for Uganda which provides an overall framework for empowerment of health consumers to demand for high quality healthcare and promote accountability in the health sector.

Julie Najjunju

Julie currently works as a Program Assistant for the Action Group for Health, Human Rights & HIV/AIDS (AGHA) Uganda.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Uganda Christian University Mukono, a Diploma in Legal Practice from Law Development Centre and is an enrolled advocate of the High Court of Uganda. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree at Makerere University School of Law. She also holds a certificate in Public Administration and Management from Makerere University Department of Adult and Continuing Education, certificate of attendance for the first school on Human Rights, Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines and certificate of attendance second East African School on Law, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS. She worked as an intern at the Parliament of Uganda in the Department of Legal and Legislative services, and was fredkorpset intern at the Human Rights House Foundation Oslo-Norway in 2011.

Mark Muganga

Mark is a health and human rights activist who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Development studies from Kyambogo University in Kampala, Uganda. He holds a certificate in Sales Fundamentals from Hearts 4Peace Canada, a certificate in HIV/AIDS Counseling, and a certificate in Monitoring the Rights to Health and the Roles of Health Professionals. He worked as a Field Officer with Community Shelters Uganda, and since 2011 has worked with the Action Group for Health Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (ACHA-Uganda).

Action Group for Health Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (ACHA-Uganda)  is a health rights advocacy organization in Uganda dedicated to raising awareness of the human rights aspects of health, and improving the quality of health and health care for all Ugandans. Grounded in a rights-based approach, AGHA mobilizes health professionals, in collaboration with communities, to be health right advocates promoting equity and social justice for all Ugandans, with a particular focus on marginalized and vulnerable populations. AGHA has a proven track record of addressing health rights violations in Uganda through advocacy-oriented research, education and training.

Javie Ssozi

Javie is a Media Consultant with the Health Media Initiative of Open Society Foundations (OSF) supporting OSF grantees in Uganda to use (new) media tools for advocacy and documentation. He has over four years of experience in use of Information and Communication Technology for Development and Advocacy in Uganda.

Apart from his work with OSF, he also works as a freelance consultant for organizations in Uganda on use of new media for advocacy.

Consolata Imade Omerikwa

Consolata is a health care provider who works with the Africa Gender and Media Initiative (GEM).  Consolata is social, outgoing, and enjoys making friends with all kinds of people.

Teresia Wanijiku Njoki

Triza was born 37 years ago in Kiambu, a district neighboring Nairobi. She is a married mother of two – a 12-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. Her background is in counseling and she has worked as a counselor and a social worker for 7 years, dealing with women and HIV-related work. Triza is involved in national and global advocacy on issues affecting women living with HIV, am is an activist on human rights and social justice.  She currently works with the African Gender and Media Initiative (GEM).

The African Gender and Media Initiative (GEM) is a national not-for-profit research organization that advances gender equality through research and action on women’s human rights. GEM has four priority areas that include sexual and reproductive health rights of women, violence against women, economic justice, and new media. GEM is currently implementing and coordinating a national advocacy campaign to end forced and coerced sterilization among women living with HIV in Kenya.

Nakibuuka Noor Musisi

Nakibuuka is a Program Manager of the Strategic Litigation program at the Centre for health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD). She has a degree in law from Makerere University with a special interest in Human Rights, and has done short courses in arbitration and reconciliation. She has attended many trainings relating to health including one on the justiciability of the right to health. The objectives of the Strategic Litigation program include; 1 ) Strengthen the recognition, protection & fulfillment of health and human rights in Uganda and at regional level; 2) Build the field and legacy of health and human rights in East Africa. Her interest in activism and human rights began after she viewed a media report that showed a woman forced to breast feed dogs simply because the husband had paid dowry; she thus joined CEHURD with a passion for advocating for women’s rights.

Nantaba Juliana

Juliana works with the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) as a program officer for their Community Empowerment Program whose main objectives are: 1) To work with communities to generate empirical evidence for advocacy on health and human rights, and 2) To empower communities to demand policy change in health and human rights. Her interest in issues of activism and human rights was nurtured during her first internship while in law school at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Central Region Office. She completed her Bachelor of Laws degree at Uganda Christian University and thereafter joined CEHURD where she was introduced to community aspects of advocacy and human rights – specifically health rights. Working with the community as part of advocacy has been eye opening for her, and interesting experience – especially where she has seen positive results.

CEHURD is an indigenous, non-profit, research and advocacy organization which is pioneering the justiciability of the right to health in the East African Region. CEHURD was founded to ensure that public health laws are used as principle tools for the promotion and protection of public health for the vulnerable populations in Uganda and in the East African region. CEHURD realizes this through a comprehensive set of programs including Community Empowerment; Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy; and Strategic Litigation. CEHURD concentrates its efforts on vulnerable populations such as women, children, orphans, sexual minorities, HIV/AIDs, persons with disabilities, refugee populations, and critical issues affecting the health systems in the region such trade, health, medical ethics, and social welfare.

Maureen Milanga

Maureen is a young woman who has done extensive work on issues related to HIV/AIDS in Kenya. She currently works as the Project Associate with the AIDS Law Project and is a 2013 AVAC fellow working on treatment as prevention.  She is also working on the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Manifesto, which contains recommendations from PLHIVs from around Kenya. She is working to promote its adoption by presidential aspirants and their political parties. This involves chasing candidates around the country as they hold political rallies, urging them to make public statements on Health and HIV and to adopt the Manifesto. She looks forward to helping Kenya achieve an HIV-free generation.

Paul Ogendi

Paul is the Programmes Manager, in charge of access to medicines at AIDS Law Project (ALP). In this position, he works to promote the right to health of PLWHIV and AIDS.

The AIDS Law Project is a law-focused NGO that deals with issues on HIV and AIDS in Kenya. Its mission is to enhance lives by promoting the realization of human and health rights of PLHIV through advocacy and communication, legal services, policy, capacity strengthening, information dissemination and creation of partnerships through networking. ALP has a history of using creative techniques to address its advocacy efforts, including the publication of a comic booklet on intellectual property and access to essential medicines which has proven to be very effective in community mobilisation on this issue.

Esther Sharara

Esther is a 30-year-old woman born and living in Harare, Zimbabwe. From 2002-2005, she studied at the University of Zimbabwe and graduated with a degree in Nutritional Sciences. Later, she did research and development for a food manufacturing company before joining the NGO sector. She currently works as a Program Officer with the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH), an organization formed in 1998 to take up health issues of common concern. She is a development practitioner with field experience in HIV/AIDS resource and service monitoring, public and social accountability, community mobilization, sexual and reproductive health rights and gender issues. She has published research on how to strengthen community health systems for people living with HIV/AIDS. Esther is well-travelled, and has visited West Africa, East Africa and Asia. Her career objective is to bring transformation to ordinary community lives regardless of race, gender, religion and creed through social empowerment and advocacy of equitable distribution of and access to public goods and services.

The CWGH is a network of civic/community based organizations who aim to collectively enhance community participation in health in Zimbabwe. It is one of the biggest networks (40 civic member organizations) in Zimbabwe, which has spearheaded community participation and has improved public health financing systems, created stronger resource allocation for primary health care, and a greater status role for the community and public inputs to decision making on health. Currently it operates in 28 districts in the country, with a CWGH district in each. The organization has deep roots within communities, and has been pivotal in the revitalization and strengthening Health Centre Committees, a mechanism for community participation in health processes proposed by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare soon after independence. The organization has campaigned for the Right to Health in the New Zimbabwe Constitution and continues to advocate for the realization of socio-economic rights. Public and Social Accountability is key for the progressive realization of people’s rights and the organization is advocating for greater accountability in the manner in which public resources, particularly for HIV/AIDS, are used for realization of health rights.

Artwell Kadungure

Artwell is a 33-year-old man, married with two kids. He has background skills in social accountability, public health, results-based management, data use and management as well as risk management. He received his schooling in rural Zimbabwe and experienced first hand the effects of inequities in the distribution of national resources for social and economic transformation. He later joined the development sector and is currently working for the Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) as a program officer in the Community Based Research and Training Programme. He works with membership-based Civil Society Organizations to gather evidence and engage it at both local and national levels, while linking local actions to national policy dialogue. He covers areas relating to health and the determinants of health, social security, incomes and production, education and so on. Artwell is currently working to implement a “Not just recovery but a JUST recovery for Zimbabwe” advocacy program. Zimbabwe’s economic and social crisis has deeply affected people’s living conditions, and the country and the people need economic and social ‘recovery’. This ‘just recovery’ campaign advocates for a recovery that improves the opportunities, conditions, productive capacities, social security and wellbeing of the people as a whole. The advocacy is being implemented through a coalition of CSOs working at both local and national levels.

TARSC provides training, research, and support services to state and civil society organizations. TARSC is a learning and knowledge organization, with a particular focus on skills-building and methods to support community-based work, and with a commitment to long term capacity building in the public sector and in civil society. TARSC implements a range of research, from cross-country formal research to local participatory and community based research with membership based civil society organizations. TARSC programs nationally and regionally in EQUINET cover Adolescent health, health literacy, research and a range of other areas and has for over 15 years used participatory methodologies to build evidence, action and to strengthen CSO in areas of health and social policy.

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For Immediate Release

Contact: manager at artisticactivism-dot-org

APPLICATIONS FOR 2013 SCHOOL FOR CREATIVE ACTIVISM NOW BEING ACCEPTED

Download 2013 SCA application here.

The Center for Artistic Activism is pleased to announce the beginning of the application cycle for our third year of School for Creative Activism Workshops, to be held in the Spring and Summer of 2013.

The School for Creative Activism is a participatory workshop infusing community organizing and civic engagement with culture and creativity.  Thanks to the generous support of the Open Societies Foundation’s Democracy and Power Fund, in 2013 we are pleased to offer this workshop entirely free of cost for three select groups of US-based activists – and we would like to invite you to apply.

We believe there is an art to every practice, and we take the art of political activism seriously.  The first rule of guerrilla warfare is to know the terrain and use it to your advantage.  Today’s political landscape includes the ephemeral ground of signs and symbols, stories and spectacle.  In order to be effective, political activism must harness the power of creativity and culture – but unfortunately, most activists are discouraged from applying creativity to the “serious business” of politics.  We believe that this is a critical mistake, and the School for Creative Activism was designed to change it, one group of organizers at a time.

Over the course of a weekend, selected participants will meet to share ideas, discuss work, learn from one another, and discover together more creative and effective activist practices.  At the conclusion of the weekend, participants will share a toolkit of creative tactics and strategies for use in a collective, creative campaign.  But this is about more than just learning.  SCA tools will be put to immediate use in a concentrated strategy session, and with structured support from SCA leadership, participants will begin implementing a creative campaign within one month of the workshop.

This year, we’re looking for groups of diverse, experienced grassroots organizers who work on a single, collaborative activist campaign.  Though participants need not necessarily work for the same organization (in fact, we encourage inter-organizational coalitions), they should be united by a well-defined political goal.  After reading our 2013 SCA application guidelines to determine if you are a good fit, we hope you’ll submit an application.  If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Skeen at manager at artisticactivm-dot-org

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For Immediate Release

Contact: directors at artisticactivism-dot-org

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION FUNDS THIRD YEAR OF THE SCHOOL FOR CREATIVE ACTIVISM

The Democracy and Power Fund, an initiative of the Open Society Foundations, has announced a third year of funding for CAA’s successful School for Creative Activism workshops. (more…)

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Join us as we attend…

A Panel Discussion from A Blade of Grass

With Artists Wafaa Bilal, Andrea Geyer, Dread Scott. Moderated by Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director, Queens Museum of Art

Thursday, January 31st at 6:00 p.m.

Do ethics equal aesthetics?

This panel discussion brings together three artists who challenge the artist’s relationship to audience, subject matter and institutions, so that we can explore the ethics of socially engaged art. Are artists working outside the gallery free to create or confront ethical dilemmas? How do audiences perceive the ethics of a socially engaged art project?

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