The Center for Artistic Activism is withdrawing from Facebook

We use Facebook to connect with you, and you use Facebook to connect with us. It’s not our preferred way, but it’s where over 4000 of you have chosen to stay informed about what we do at the Center for Artistic Activism. Part of our philosophy at the Center for Artistic Activism is to meet …

The Artistic Activism Grants 2017!

Last year, we were able to give out grants to some of the thousand-ish C4AA workshop alumni. These artistic activists in Croatia, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, the UK, and Hungary created seven artistic actions to increase public engagement with the seriously problematic issues of the lack marginalized communities’ access to public health care. Throughout 2017, …

Webinar #19: How Change Happens: Artistic Activism’s Theory of Change

How Change Happens: Artistic Activism’s Theory of Change Behind all successful transformative action is a Theory of Change. Artistic Activism is no different. An idea of how change happens helps us choose how we use our time, effort and creativity and how to leverage these things for maximum impact. Join us in this webinar as …

Webinar #18: How Do We Know If It Works? Part 1

This is one of our most popular webinars. We’re sorry if you missed it happening live, but you can check out the video, which is 97.587% as great. Sign up for future webinars to get in on the live action. In this webinar, Steve and Steve talked with the fantastic scholar/activist Jan Cohen-Cruz and A …

Webinar #17: Intelligent Mischief and the Culture of Black Liberation

In this webinar, Steve Lambert has a great talk with Terry about how he uses satire, story, surrealism, comics, video, stickers, art exhibits, products, and so much more to create transformational experiences. We love how Terry talks about fearless creative experimentation, world-building, and diegetic prototypes to help move forward any progressive idea. Terry has been …

Webinar: Guerrilla Futures

Our new webinar season launched December 1st, 2017 with Stuart Candy and Jake Dunagan of Guerrilla Futures. They use future studies to understand how we can all use visionary thinking to imagine and create better tomorrows. While many futurists engage in thinking about the future theoretically, these guys actually experiment. Their Experiential Futures work using …

We Got a “Silver Medal” at the World Democracy Forum!

On November 8 – 10, 2017 C4AA was invited to present to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg France at their annual World Forum for Democracy. The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organization. C4AA Co-Founder Steve Duncombe made the case for artistic activism as a way to defeat right-wing populism, describing …

West Africa Training in December

West Africa Art Action AcademyDecember 17 – 21, 2017 OSIWA (Open Society Initiative for West Africa), C4AA (The Center for Artistic Activism) and Association Culturelle La Muse invite artists to apply to participate in a 5-day Art Action Academy from December 17-21, 2017 in Conakry, Guinea. The workshop is open to artists from West Africa …

Lessons From Utopia

Adapted from the C4AA’s upcoming book How To Win: The Art of Activism, this is an article by Co-Directors Duncombe and Lambert about how Artistic Activists can use the idea and ideal of Utopia. Lessons From Utopia Part 1 Lessons From Utopia Part 2 Lessons From Utopia Part 3

Applications Are Open! Art Action Academy at the Queens Museum

Applications closed   Many artists want to create work that has a social impact. Unfortunately, organizing a successful social-change campaign is not often part of an artist’s education. The Art Action Academy (AAA), now in its second year at Queens Museum, helps socially-engaged artists make their work more impactful and better evaluate the effect of their …

Artistic Action: Sex Worker Rights in Dublin

As part of our Arts Action Academy in December 2016 in Dublin, sex workers, artists and activists created and performed this creative action to raise awareness about, and fight against, laws that criminalize sex workers. All of this was conceived and implemented by the Academy participants in 24 hours as the last day of our intensive AAA training. …

5 Ways to Up Your Artistic Action Game

Here are 5 things you can do if you want to make change in the world: 1. Steal from the Past Borrow from successful creative movements (video). Make time to be inspired by others (check out Actipedia). 2. Know How to Manipulate Change Minds Use cognitive and behavioral science to understand how to make change starting …

Apply for the Johannesburg Art Action Academy

Are you an artist or creative practitioner interested in challenging public perceptions about sex work in South Africa? If so, please apply to attend our Art Action Academy in May! In collaboration with SWEAT – Sex Workers Education & Advocacy Taskforce and Sonke Gender Justice, we invite artists (and creative practitioners of all kinds) interested …

The Creators Project Recommends Center for Artistic Activism to Artists

The fantastic Creators Project just posted a new story on us: “Need More Activism in Your Art? Look No Further Than This Center.” A lot of artists might be thinking about how to incorporate more political activism into their practices right about now, and if you’re one of them then you’re in luck, because there …