http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/art/titel.html is a website that features historical examples of social change facilitated through art by five European artists from the 1880s to 1930s.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Art To The People!
JUST SEEDS Blog
From http://justseeds.org/ -
“Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work online in a central location and to collaborate with and support each other and social movements. Our website is not just a place to shop, but also a destination to find out about current events in radical art and culture. Our blog covers political printmaking, socially engaged street art, and culture related to social movements. We believe in the power of personal expression in concert with collective action to transform society.”
“Justseeds was originally started in 1998 by artist Josh MacPhee as a way to distribute his art and the Celebrate People's History poster series. He slowly expanded Justseeds to include the work of like-minded artists. In 2006, MacPhee reached out to a dozen like-minded artists and previous collaborators as well as the political street art blog Visual Resistance in order to re-envision Justseeds as a cooperative effort. Justseeds was transformed into Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, an artist/worker owned and run cooperative and blog, that launched in the summer of 2007.”
Activism Through Graffiti in Tel Aviv
FiftyCrows Foundation
FiftyCrows is a San Francisco based foundation, which promotes social change through photography. Founded in 2001, this organization seeks to use documentary-style photos to arouse public interest in social concerns and facilitate interaction.
More information can be found on their websites:
The compliment guys!
These two fine gentlemen are the Purdue "Compliment Guys". (Click on the picture for the full article.)
Their mission: to compliment everyone that walks by them and brighten their day.
Their purpose: not girls, or money, or fame, just the hope that they can spread a little joy in a time of economic depression.
When I read this article I couldn't help but smile. So clearly their project is working! On the surface it may not seem like this article has much to do with the goal of the arts and culture group, but I think it would be interesting to see if what these two guys are doing could be applied to different situations. For example, what if instead of having "compliment guys" on a college campus, there could be a group of people outside of the soup kitchen giving compliments, or maybe in one of the more impoverished neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Would a group of happy compliment givers have their comments taken at face value, or has the world become so cynical that even a simple compliment wouldn't be received well? I'm not sure, but I think it might make for some interesting performance art.
Art Work- A National Conversation about Art, Labor and Economics
This website is teaming with viable information and material that could be used to help the arts and culture group find their footing. It has information about other art activist groups, and the creative economy and then some, so take a look!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Brainstorming Pinwheel!
John Michel created this wonderful flash version of Andrew Bosley's "The Brainstormer!" It was originally a paper model but Andrew got so much use out of it he wanted to share it with the world. Maybe it would be fun to use this to start group meetings in an interesting way!
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