ArtistsActivists is a youth empowerment and advocacy organization started in 2011 by graduate students at Yale University. Through the various ArtistsActivists programs, artists and designers share their skills with young people around the world. Since more people are joining our team bringing with them certain skills and project ideas, the Artists Activists mission is constantly evolving.
A beauty contest for landmine victims challenges normal concepts of beauty. The search for beauty takes many forms. The traditional beauty pageant might be thought to be one of the less acceptable, concentrating as it does on conventional ideas of female perfection. Miss Landmine is a challenge to normal concepts of beauty. It is a beauty pageant held in Angola, a country ravaged by war and its aftermath, for women who have lost limbs from landmines.
In a gallery in Hong Kong’s Chai Wan district last week, during the city’s third annual installment of the international Art Basel fair, the Beijing-based artist Huang Rui introduced a new live work called “Red Black White Grey.” At the start of the performance, four affectless women walked onstage wearing trench coats, then disrobed one by one as Huang, who is sixty-three, slathered their bodies with black and then white paint.
This past Valentine's Day the Fresh Juice Party pulled another "art prank;" this time sending chocolate shaped as dead American soldiers and sent them to U.S. government officials, especially to the previous Bush administration. This prank while very effective in its message, is not so effective in terms of timing.
Last night, over 40 protesters staged an intervention inside the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan during Saturday night’s pay-what-you-wish admission hours.
Hello and thanks for viewing.
This was a little installation that took place in the beauty of West Texas. The goal was to reorientate the site specific Prada Marfa into something more relevant, TOMS Marfa. Prada Marfa, being in the middle of nowhere, a structure placed as sort of a apocalyptic trophy for the high art world meant to challenge time; TOMS Marfa was to accelerate that vision with 2014 subject matter.
“The Split”, 26"H x 20"W x 18"D (aluminum, physics books, iPod running a countdown timer program, light, shadow) uses the shadow of a “High School Physics” book to represent World Trade Center, Building #7 that fell into its own footprint at free fall speed (6.5 seconds) on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. We were told that fire caused it to fall, but that is impossible and defies the basic Laws of Physics.
On Saturday, June 22, a group of friends will meet at one of the more than 4,000 natural gas wells that have been drilled by hydrofracking in Pennsylvania. Instead of picket signs, however, they'll be carrying a picnic basket. For an event they're calling "Picnic on the Gas," they'll strive to show that it is possible to live with creativity and even joy in gas drilling country.
Palas por Pistolas initiated in the city of Culiacán, a city in western Mexico with a high rate of deaths by gunshot. The botanical garden of Culiacán has been comissioning artist to do interventions in the park and my proposal was to work in the larger scale of the city and organize a campaign for voluntary donation of weapons.
A series of performances orchestrated by Lila Roo, to bring awareness to the past, present and future issue of the physical and energetic violence against the First Nation of the native buffalo and peoples of the United Sates of America in the past few hundred years. Lila worked alongside activists, the buffalo and First Nation musicians and spiritual leaders to create multi-sensory blessings for the blood spilt.
The Uganda National Contemporary Ballet (UNCB) presented a new powerful and moving production advocating for the child soldiers all over the world at the National Theatre in Kampala.
Between A Rock And A Hard Place is a project consisting of a cleaning performance, a film and a big event on August 18, 2012. From the material recorded on this day, a film and a vinyl record will be made.
Afrika ARTS Kollective is a group of artists that decided to face Uganda's demographic growth and the garbage problem of the capital, Kamala, with art. 30,000 tons of residues come out of this monthly and the Administration is being working on healthy and good environmental behaviors among citizens.
"A new photographic work created by Ayyam Gallery artist Tammam Azzam has captured the imaginations of the world, going viral and being shared across social media as a symbol of the power of love and human spirit in times of war. The Syrian artist has superimposed Gustav Klimt’s iconic work, The Kiss (1907 – 1908), over the walls of a war-torn building in his native country in a powerful juxtaposition of beauty and devastation.
With World Comics India, the organization he started, Sharad has pioneered a cheap and easy medium for poor people to communicate meaningfully on issues that are neglected by the conventional media. While the urban elite dominates public media, the grinding day-to-day concerns of millions are rarely heard. Layers of discrimination and abuse heaped on huge numbers of people keep their problems out of sight and out of mind.
Turf the Turf hopes to inspire you to reconsider your front lawn by sharing existing examples of creative uses on a fun bike tour around the city of Kelowna. There are many options, such as xeriscaping (using native plants), front yard gardening or even installing original art that can display your creativity and offer you new ways to relate with your environment and your neighbourhood.
Project IMPACT is an 8-week leadership-through-storytelling workshop for teen survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. The goal of Project IMPACT is to introduce survivors to the idea that sharing their stories is a powerful advocacy tool that can impact the legislative process and work to combat sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
A video collaboration betweenHayley Silverman and Emily Shinada. Using clips from a Japanese pornography film, the video highlights fears of interpersonal connection and explores the objectification of women. It was on view at Alogon Gallery for theWomen Get Fucked exhibition.
Charged with participating in demonstrations against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Soudabeh Ardavan was held for eight years (1981-1989) in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. She found sanity and solace through the forbidden activities of drawing and painting, secretly producing paint from flower petals and tea, using brushes made from toothpicks and human hair.
The project (created in 2009-2010) consists of painted plats and posters depicted with drawings of police torture scenes. Images also include snippets of email exchanges. The plates have been exhibited in numerous galleries in Ukraine, and posters were hung in public spaces.
On Tuesday, May 8, in the midst of final exam week, a group of female first-year students performed a public art action at UC Berkeley to call attention to the UC Regents’ privatization of what was once the premier public university in the country.(See photos below)