Projects tagged "Activates (people)"

Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Global Jars of Joy
Practitioner:
The Joy Switchboard
Date:
Apr 25 2021
Our project aims to show people that joy can be an act of resistance and resilience in the face of global justice issues when harnessed in the right way. The sharing of joy can also act as a connector in a society that continues to grow more polarised through the division of social media and mainstream media.
The Baltic Way – the longest unbroken human chain in history
Practitioner:
citizens of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Date:
Aug 23 1989
At 7:00 PM on 23 August 1989, approximately two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, spanning 675 kilometres, or 420 miles. It was a peaceful protest against the illegal Soviet occupation and also one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history.
New Orleans students showcase their creativity with iPad and Mac
Practitioner:
Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM)
Date:
Feb 3 2025
On a drizzly, overcast afternoon, all is quiet at the intersection of Bartholomew and Prieur streets in New Orleans’ historic Ninth Ward. The quiet neighborhood around the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM) feel worlds away from the historic French Quarter packed with jazz clubs, bars, restaurants, and markets.
2020 Was the Year of Protest Music
Practitioner:
Ambrose Akinmusire
Date:
Apr 1 2020
2020 was the year of when protest music blared everywhere. For a long period, Black people struggled against police brutality and in the uproar of George Floyd's murder, BLM protests instantly swept over the country. Of the many protest music that was released that year, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire wrote a song that would spearhead raging sentiments towards racial injustice beyond just jazz.
Climate Name Change
Practitioner:
Barton Graf Agency
Date:
Sep 1 2014
To bring attention to the widespread apathy toward climate change, nonprofit group 350action and agency Barton F. Graf 9000 got a little personal. Tapping into the meteorological legacy of naming hurricanes after people–thereby marring the good names of unsuspecting Sandys, Irenes and Katrinas everywhere–“Climate Name Change” told the same storm story, but subbed in the name of prominent politicians who refuse to acknowledge climate change.
Menstruation Terrorism
Practitioner:
Kashafa Khan
Date:
Feb 7 2006
Menstruation Terrorism is the act of frightening folks with the visibility of menstruation.
How Keith Haring Made Uncomfortable Topics More Digestible
Practitioner:
Keith Haring's Dogs - Gylian Amdur, Kiera Farley, Macy Katz, Jocelyn Penate, and Rachel Nguyen
Date:
Feb 6 2023
Keith Haring is known to be one of the biggest artists raising awareness for HIV and AIDS, considering he had also passed away from HIV. Starting his career covering ads with spray paint and chalk in subway stations in New York City, his work started trending and he became an activist for this cause.
The Paradox of the Tyre Nichols Video
Practitioner:
RowVaugn Wells
Date:
Jan 27 2023
TYRE NICHOLS WAS a photographer with an eye for the natural world. He was especially drawn to landscape portraiture, its calm and innocence. It is said that Nichols liked to crane his lens skyward, capturing what sunlight he could before it dissolved into the horizon. As he drove home after taking photos on January 7, he was pulled over by the Memphis police and what happened next was as tragic as it is terribly commonplace. Tyre Nichols is dead at 29.
Chinese artist speaks out against zero-Covid policy by wearing 27 hazmat suits in Times Square
Practitioner:
Zhisheng Wu
Date:
Oct 18 2022
On Sunday morning, a puffy, Michelin Man-like figure trudged through Times Square in New York, panting from the exertion of trying to move while wearing 27 hazmat suits. Inside the white cocoon was Zhisheng Wu, a Chinese artist who staged the street performance to criticize China’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy.
Beili Liu's 'The Mending Project': Weaving Connections in a World Frayed by Time and Culture
Practitioner:
Beili Liu
Date:
Oct 13 2011
In the broad context of the modern world of art, the work of Beili Liu has always seemed extraordinary in visual terms and deeply profound in thematic development. Born in China and living in the United States, much of her work usually circles themes tightly interwoven with notions of identity, culture, and time.
Fighting Violence with Art
Practitioner:
Sam Ryu, Ethan Regan
Date:
Dec 11 2023
One of the oldest forms of human expression is art, so it’s no surprise that art is constantly used to critique another of humanity’s oldest practices, violence and war. In the world of art activism, the power of creativity and innovation has been used to create commentary about war since the beginning of time. Art that speaks out against the atrocities of violent conflict embodies empathy, care, and a plethora of other human emotions.
Four Dead in Ohio
Practitioner:
Neil Young, Students at Kent State University
Date:
May 1 1970
“Tin Soldiers and Nixon’s Coming. We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming. Four Dead in Ohio."
Raise Your Umbrellas: How Denise Ho went from Cantopop queen to pro-democracy activist
Practitioner:
Denise Ho
Date:
Jan 1 2014
In Hong Kong in 2014 the song Raise Your Umbrella by Denise Ho and Anthong Wong became an anthem for the pro-democracy movement known as the Umbrella Revolution. The song was written after police fired tear gas into the crowds when protestors filled the streets.
Echoes of Defiance: Xiao Lu and the Impact of 'Dialogue' on Art and Society
Practitioner:
Xiao Lu
Date:
Jan 1 1989
Xiao Lu was one of the most influential women in contemporary Chinese art, better known for provoking performance art works and sharp social commentaries. Her works address sensitive social and cultural issues that counter mainstream attitudes and values. In 1989, she put her work "Dialogue" up for exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
"blood-stained wedding dress, wounded bride"
Practitioner:
Maizi Li, Jing Xiong
Date:
Feb 14 2012
On February 14, 2012, three female college student volunteers wore blood-stained wedding dresses and appeared as "wounded brides" in Beijing Qianmen Pedestrian Street.
Voguing As Resistance
Practitioner:
Black Trans Liberation
Date:
Aug 7 2023
There were still bloodstains outside the Midwood Mobil gas station on Friday night; a fresh sign taped to a lamppost read “A Hate Crime Happened Here.” This is the place where, less than a week prior, 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, a gay Black dancer and choreographer, made a pit stop with friends after a Jersey beach day.
Negro Matapacos
Practitioner:
Maldito Perrito
Date:
Jan 1 2015
The streets of Santiago are once again alive with the spirit of revolution. For weeks now, working-class Chileans have occupied national monuments and blocked major intersections in protest of widespread inequality. They desire full reform — a request so long in the making that it is practically tradition. The country’s floundering political elite offer half measures while dispatching riot police and the military.
Crack is Wack
Practitioner:
Keith Haring
Date:
Jun 27 1986
Without having been commissioned—or even given legal permission at all—Haring set out to create Crack Is Wack on the wall of an abandoned handball court in a park at 2nd Avenue and East 128th Street on June 27, 1986. Upon the completion of the mural, Haring was arrested by the New York City Police Department for vandalism of city property and faced potential jail time in addition to heavy fines.
Occupy Men’s Toilets
Practitioner:
Five young feminist activists: Wu Rongrong, Zheng Churan, Wang Man, Wei Tingting, and Li Tingting
Date:
Feb 19 2012
The “Occupy Men’s Toilets” movement, initiated by Chinese feminist activists including Li Tingting (Li Maizi) and Wu Rongrong, emerged in 2012 as a creative, non-violent protest against gender inequality in access to public facilities.
Becoming a Statue of Japanese Comfort Woman
Practitioner:
Yoshiko Shimada (嶋田美子)
Date:
Nov 30 2011
‘Since Plotinus’, writes Joseph Tanke (2019, p. 486), ‘Western art has been consecrated to beauty, and beautiful art has been understood as the achievement of good form’. But alongside this interest in beauty and form, art has been committed to politics and perspectives, equity and rights. Consequently, and particularly since the start of the modern era, artists frequently initiate or participate in ‘difficult conversations’.
Bicycle Advocacy Love Your Lane
Practitioner:
American Youth Hostels (AYH)
Date:
Apr 7 1973
On April 7, 1973, some 400 cyclists chanting “Bikes don’t pollute” rode through midtown Manhattan in a “Bike-In” that called for separate lanes to encourage bicycling and provide safety on city streets.
With the Help of an Art Installation, Ukrainian Activists in NYC Canvass Voters for Support
Practitioner:
Ganna Smirnova, Vsevolod Myrnyi and Zhanna Galeyeva
Date:
Nov 4 2024
Four days before the U.S. presidential election, three Ukrainian activists gathered at a stranded fence in New York City’s East Village to hang an expansive information poster. “19546+ Ukrainian Children Abducted by Russia,” reads its headline in bold. From a black canvas, white letters jump out at the passersby, a haunting reminder of the toll the Russian invasion continues to inflict on Ukrainian families.
When an orchestra director negotiated his cachet in trees
Practitioner:
Claudio Abbado
Date:
Sep 9 2009
Claudio Abbado was an Italian orchestra director (1933 - 2014) who served as chief director at La Scala Theater in Milan from 1968 - 1985. After 18 years of absence, in 2009, he was invited to conduct a concert there. He accepted upon condition that, instead of paying him a monetary honorarium, the city would commit to the planing of 90.000 trees in the city of Milan.
Art as a Mirror: Zhang Huan’s 'Family Tree' and Its Reflections on Cultural Identity
Practitioner:
Zhang Huan
Date:
Oct 11 2000
One of the most critical artists on the contemporary art scene is Zhang Huan. His works are of great social insight and unique in how he applies his artistic expression. He thus makes them an almost visual feast with a peek into the multilevel structure of modern society. One such work is the masterpiece "Family Tree," which shows how art can mould our social cognition through multilayered symbolism and profound imagery.
Your body is a battleground
Practitioner:
Barbara Kruger
Date:
Apr 9 1989
Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) is an iconic 1989 silkscreen portrait made by artist, feminist and activist Barbara Kruger . Though the poster was meant for the pro-choice march on April 9th, 1989, in DC, the portrait is now used mainly to voice the artist’s own opinion about gender inequality. The piece is much more relevant in today’s society, where it controls the way we view and treat women’s bodies.

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