The Intersection of Art and Activism
Over the years, social issue campaigners and activists have employed a variety of marketing and communications efforts to attract public interest to their causes, to varying degrees of success. More recently, activists have turned to the arts for inspiration and as a way to engage audiences through deep and emotional connections in order to bring about change. At the same time, more artists are imbuing their work with social and political messaging to advance the issues they feel most passionate about.
There is a growing body of work, and growing interest among grant makers, in the intersection of arts and activism. A recent two-panel session, organized in collaboration with Philanthropy New York and New York Grantmakers in the Arts, provided an opportunity to develop common definitions, best practices, and methods of assessing impact.
Listen to both discussions above.
![Two figures stand on a bridge dressed in hand-made Indigenous regalia.](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/159b6b06-17fa-4b0f-9528-715a3f62f17d/20231102-cannupa-hanska-luger-futureancestraltechnologies-welive-still1-3000.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C125%2C3000%2C1875 "This still from Cannupa Hanska Luger's "Future Ancestral Technologies - We Live" (2021) illustrates the artist’s blending of Indigenous futurism, place, storytelling and documentation of living practice as two figures pledge accountability to the land and waters through their physical presence. Like many projects from this year’s art fellows, the work incorporates knowledge and practice from native communities that live in harmony with nature to imagine how the whole world can improve our relationship with the Earth. Photo credit: © Cannupa Hanska Luger")
