Main Gallery

Tamir Rice legacy shows how artists can sensitively engage with racially charged history
Practitioner:
Cleveland Museum of Art
Date:
Nov 24 2019
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Dana Schutz, the acclaimed New York artist who trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art, famously stirred controversy at the 2017 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art with “Open Casket,’’ her painting depicting Emmett Till’s body in its coffin. Till, a black 14-year-old, was murdered and mutilated by white men in Mississippi in 1955 after having been falsely accused of flirting with a white woman.
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Dubai Man Aims to Enable Filmmaking Skills Among West Bank Youngsters
Practitioner:
Handheld Stories
Date:
Jul 4 2011
Youngsters on the West Bank will have the chance to benefit creatively from a new project this summer. From the beginning of July, Handheld Stories plans to teach filmmaking skills to groups between eight and 16 years old from youth centres and refugee camps in East Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron, while also giving them video equipment, computers and software.
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The Absurdity of War: Banksy’s 'Love is in the Air'
Practitioner:
Banksy
Date:
Jun 15 2006
Love is in the Air is a quintessential Banksy painting. The image of a masked militant poised to hurl a bouquet of flowers has become synonymous with the artist's indelible graphic style. One of Banksy’s most coveted works on canvas, it is an archetypal example of the artist’s use of dark humour, satire, and his perceptive, stimulating commentaries on contemporary political and social events.
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Domestic Tension
Practitioner:
Wafaa Bilal
Date:
May 1 2007
Wafaa Bilal's childhood in Iraq was defined by the horrific rule of Saddam Hussein, two wars, a bloody uprising, and time spent interned in chaotic refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Bilal eventually made it to the U.S. to become a professor and a successful artist, but when his brother was killed at a U.S. checkpoint in 2005, he decided to use his art to confront those in the comfort zone with the realities of life in a conflict zone.
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The story behind the strange 8th Ave. subway statues and the cartoons that inspired them
Practitioner:
Tom Otterness
Date:
Apr 17 2004
At the Eighth Avenue subway station, sewer alligators are not an urban legend. Anyone who’s been through the 14th St./Eighth Ave. station has probably seen the bronze gator sculpture — and probably wondered what it means and why it’s there. The underground gators — along with dozens of other whimsical creatures — are part of the permanent art installation housed at the intersection of the A,C,E, and L lines.
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Emergency Cinema and the Dignified Image: Cell Phone Activism and Filmmaking in Syria
Practitioner:
Syrian citizens
Date:
Jan 1 2011
One of the most significant aspects of the wave of protests and uprisings that began in Syria in 2011 was the use of the cell phone camera as a tool of documentation, political activism, and creative expression.
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Un-dividing the House
Practitioner:
Mark Thompson
Date:
May 26 1989
About 6 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, installation artist Marc Thompson began conceptualizing and constructing an installation that would reflect the absurdities of the divided city. Thompson´s work was part of the Ressource Kunst exhibition.
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Television Commercial for Communism
Practitioner:
The Propeller Group
Date:
Jan 1 2012
Television Commercial for Communism: https://vimeo.com/129592556
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The Public Market Token Program
Practitioner:
Rochester Public Market
Date:
Sep 1 2014
Through the Market Token program, wooden tokens are used as market currency, making it possible for customers with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food-stamp benefits to get fresh, healthy, affordable foods at the Market. Customers stop at the Market office to swipe their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card and purchase $1 and $5 tokens that function as cash and are accepted by dozens of Market vendors.
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Sotheby’s Teamsters and OWS protest The Scream auction
Practitioner:
Occupy
Date:
May 7 2012
Amidst a crowd of protesters and oversized signs, Pat Walsh shouted, “What’s disgusting? Union busting?” At a glance, Walsh, a woman with well-kept gray hair and an open smile, didn’t strike one as the usual angry protester. But that night, Walsh was fighting. “My husband, John, has been locked out from Sotheby’s,” says Walsh. “He’s been a worker for 30 years. I’m here to fight for him.” Currently,
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Occupy Barbie Dream-House
Practitioner:
Linksjugend [solid] Berlin Kreuzkölln
Date:
May 16 2013
We at "Left Youth ['solid] Kreuzkölln" have been around long enough of this policy and its lousy consequences for us. But how to solve the problem now? The problem is clearly the capitalist society for us. Even at school you will be prepared for competition and profit motive. We say: Stop it! The manifesto: Barbie Dream House in Berlin? Not with us!
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Protest Outside UK Asylum-Seeker Hotel Ends in 15 Arrests
Practitioner:
civilians
Date:
Feb 11 2023
LONDON (AP) — An anti-migration protest outside a hotel housing asylum-seekers in northwest England turned violent and resulted in the arrests of 15 people, local police said Saturday. The Merseyside Police department said a police officer and two civilians sustained minor injuries during the disturbance on Friday night in Knowsley, a village located 13.5 kilometers (8.4 miles) from the city of Liverpool.
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Artbus
Practitioner:
Artbus
Date:
Apr 8 2005
"Artbus is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary art. Supported by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations Artbus facilitates public access to current artistic expressions and fosters creativity and production by living artists.
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Pro-Choice Trolling
Practitioner:
Jasmine Shea, Nathaniel Peck
Date:
Jul 9 2014
Fun Craft Idea: Pro-Choice Trolling in Hobby Lobby Aisles Jezebel By Callie Beusman
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Occupy Museums Hosts a Faux Graduation Ceremony at the Whitney Museum
Practitioner:
Occupy Museums
Date:
May 5 2017
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s pay-what-you-wish Fridays are typically busy. For two-and-a-half hours out of the 53 the museum is open each week, visitors can enter without paying the usual $25 admission fee, a brief and temporary, but recurrent, leveling of the playing field for art lovers.
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Somerville Stock Exchange
Practitioner:
Tim Devin
Date:
Oct 23 2012
"The Fine Art Of Investing" Spare Change News, October 19, 2012. Cambridge MA. It’s an interesting gamble.
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Just Fashion: Critical Cases on Social Justice and Fashion
Practitioner:
Otto Von Busch, Parsons-New School, Self Passage
Date:
Nov 23 2012
Over the course of a semester, fashion hactivist and fashion social justice scholar, Otto Von Busch, facilitated a course on "Critical Fashion and Social Justice," where graduate fashion students at Parsons design school researched, contextualized and at times critiqued case studies on various examples of "fashion social justice." Case studies included traditional fair trade companies and non profit organizations that have used fashi
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Ferdinand the Bull
Practitioner:
Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson
Date:
Jan 1 1936
On a damp and rainy Sunday in October of 1935, Munro Leaf sat down to write a story. He had been eager to work with his friend – the illustrator Robert Lawson – for some time and so he decided to pen a book which he felt might suit the illustrator’s skills. Lawson was a master at drawing animals but horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and mice had all been done a thousand times already.
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Restored Tennessee Rep. Pearson charts progressive path
Practitioner:
ustin Pearson
Date:
Apr 18 2023
Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson never guessed he'd be expelled for leading a gun control protest on the House floor after a deadly school shooting. Nor did he predict that he'd be propelled into the national spotlight, placing his state at the forefront of the conversation on gun regulations.
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Protesters Occupy Brooklyn Museum Atrium, Demanding Decolonization Commission
Practitioner:
multiple groups
Date:
Apr 29 2018
On Sunday, April 29, dozens of protesters occupied the Beaux-Arts Court at the Brooklyn Museum as they reiterated demands for a decolonization commission, about which the art institution has remained silent. The calls for the commission come after the criticisms that followed the appointment of two white curators to the museum, including in the field of African art.
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