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Set in the This Is America exhibit at the Nearby Gallery in Newtown, MA, guest speakers: Julia Cseko, Domenic Esposito, Flor Delgadillo, and Shannon Downey will discuss and answer questions about art activism.
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Unraveling Art and Artivism.
A conversation about Artistic Activism: Is every contemporary artist an Artivism?
Recently cans of soup, tomato sauce, glue, and mashed potatoes have been the most frightening ingredients to the museum's staff and visitors. The past two decades have seen a surge in the use of art as a target for activism demonstrations, and museums and galleries are the site and stage for these protests.
But how about when artists use their skills, talents, and voice to raise awareness and demand social and political changes? If modern art is not about beauty anymore, is art still for art's sake, or can we consider most artists activists? Artivism, also called Social Artivism, was popularized in the '90s. Most known activists include Ai Wei Wei, Tania Bruguera, Banksy, and thousands of great emerging and well established artists and graffiti artists.
We invite you to join us in a conversation with artists who have embraced political and social causes using their work to communicate, educate, enlighten, and provoke reactions from policymakers and the general population, hoping to generate responses that will indeed provide must needed changes in systems and ultimately people's lives. How are organizations, funders, and businesses supporting such initiatives? Since art and creativity are more accessible, how can we better understand Artivism and help?
"We want to be subversive, to transform our audience, to confront them with some disarming statements, backed up by facts—and great visuals—and hopefully convert them." —THE GUERRILLA GIRLS
Pablo Picasso, speaking of his now world-famous anti-war painting, Guernica, boldly declared: "Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy."
The aim of activist artists is to create art that is a form of political or social currency, actively addressing cultural power structures rather than representing them or simply describing them. In describing the art she makes, the activist artist Tania Bruguera said, 'I don't want art that points to a thing. I want art that is the thing'.