Art To The People!

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.

Activism Through Graffiti in Tel Aviv

Photo collection of social activism through street art in Florentine, Tel Aviv:

Translates to “No Children, No Terror Attacks”

Link:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/telavivstreetart/

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:

http://fiftycrows.wordpress.com/

http://www.fiftycrows.org/

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!

“STREET ART and SOCIAL MOVEMENTS”

Throughout history, street art has been used as a form of social commentary for those have no input or control of the media. It is an illegal, primal way of communicating social concerns or revealing one’s point to a large audience.

PARIS, 1968…

With the student and worker’s revolt of May and June of that year came a surge of street art, while France sat on the brink of a revolution. Protest wasn’t just the marches and picket signs. It was the representation of the plight faced by workers and students, fixed onto buildings throughout Paris by use of graffiti.

SOUTH AFRICA, 1970s-1980s…

With the swell of youth uprising against the apartheid in late 1970s South Africa came a revolution aided by street art. Though forbidden, anti-apartheid propaganda soared in popularity. People of South Africa joined together to visually present the oppressive world in which they live.

SOURCE:

http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2009/02/street_art_and_social_movement.html

Shepard Fairey

In the year 2008, American artist Shepard Fairey created one of the most iconic and highly publicized images. This image was the colorful, politically motivated “HOPE” poster featuring the mug of Barack Obama. Although already an accomplished stencil artist, Fairey gained national attention for the political propaganda of his creation. Not only did his poster allude to the modern ideologies Obama hoped to bring to the White House through Fairey’s use of color and medium, but in effect, made our president as iconic as Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans.

SOURCES:

http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/shepardfairey.html

http://beiderbecke.typepad.com/tba/images/2008/02/28/obama_hope.jpg

BANKSY

As an oft controversial, bold, and somewhat anonymous artist, Robin Banks (better known as Banksy) is England’s premier graffiti artist. Banksy’s art is displayed with guerilla-like tactics, astonishing the unknowing public. He is also world-renowned for his “headline-making stunts” which include leaving an inflatable doll (which was dressed as a Guantanamo prisoner) at Disneyland in California. Always provocative, Banksy even has a few celebrity collectors, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The most prevalent theme in Banksy’s work is his attempts to provoke the audience to think abstractly and away from the norm.

SOURCE:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html

“Graffiti Art - A Solution to Urban Decay?”

Tan Rulxlang William, an art expert and writer for ezinearticles.com, argues the benefits of graffiti in an urban area. In his opinion, graffiti is often not meant as an act of vandalism by the artists, but “as a form of community beautification.” This form of art works as a stark contrast to the commercialism that plagues the public domain. As anyone can see it, graffiti is the ideal medium to connect with the general public.

SOURCE:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Graffiti-Art-A-Solution-to-Urban-Decay?&id=816264

JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO by Jay Burnham

Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) was a well-known Mexican muralist and political cartoonist of the first half of the 20^th century. As he grew up in Mexico City, Orozco discovered his passion for art. From 1910-1916, Orozco worked as a cartoonist for the magazine El Hijo de Ahuizote where he expressed a great deal of social commentary regarding the Mexican Revolution. By the 1920s, Orozco had found his preferred medium in murals. Though, his commentary was still abundant. His political commentary expanded from the Revolution to his concerns about dehumanization through technology and the changing of morals Orozco witnessed.

HISPANO-AMERICA (1934) is one of Orozco’s murals which frames a Latin-American peasent using his (human) rights to protest imperialist oppression.

SOURCES:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Orozco/part2.html

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/305-tragedy-and-triumph-the-drama-of-jose-clemente-orozco-1883–1949

Orozco, Jose Clemente: An Autobiography

Art For Social Change –- A Website

www.artforsocialchange.net is a world-wide project initiated by Dutch artist Rini Hartman. The site expresses the goals of the program:

“A belief in cultural and creative expressionism as a means to affect deep and lasting social change. Through art, we can challenge many of our society’s deepest assumptions, built upon the power of artistic creation and expression to:

*Spark new ideas

*Catalyze critical thinking

*Elicit new actions

*Inspire individuals

*And create visions

Art becomes a political act, a conscious effort to facilitate and participate in social change. If we want respect, love and beauty among us and others, we must actively promote it through our art.

This site shows different ways of using art, which may inspire you.”

8 VISIONS OF HOPE

At the 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 world leaders signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDGs was initiated as a way to set goals to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. Rini Hartman created the 8 VISIONS OF HOPE project to create awareness of MDGs. 8 Visions of Hope often approaches subjects such as poverty and human rights.

Spotlight: LIBER-8 ME

Artist STEWART EBERSOLE depicts urban blight with the clenching fists of his “Liber-8 Me” project.

Sources:

http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/category/street-art/

http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2008/02/12/liber-8-me-unmasked-street-artist-stewart-ebersole-of-the-renegade-art-coalition-speaks/

Mural Arts Program

Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program came about in 1984 in an effort to eliminate the graffiti that plagued the city. Muralist Jane Golden was hired to seek local graffiti artists and channel their skills from making detrimental graffiti to creating murals that glorify the city. In addition to creating more than two thousand murals, the Mural Arts Program directly assisted in supplying unity and love throughout the streets of Philadelphia through art.

Sources:

http://www.muralarts.org/

http://www.muralfarm.org/Muralfarm/Home.aspx

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/20090910_Artist_brings_power_of_love_to_Phila__streets.html

The Art of Street Art

How does graffiti and street art work? Well, it can be seen as a sort of “guerilla advertising” like practice. To the average person walking along the sidewalk, public art like this stands out, and can certainly leave an impression. Instead of publicizing something commercial, the artist promotes his or her own beliefs, or simply wants to show off their artwork. In Philadelphia, Street art is most often seen via “tagging” (graffiti featuring words or symbols as opposed to images) or through the Mural Arts Program.

Sources:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tagging

http://citynoise.org/article/9363/in/philadelphia@pa

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moocat/281385059/

An Introduction to Street Art

In a research endeavor, I originally attempted to find PROTEST ART local to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this was too narrow a topic to find anything substantial or meaningful. I began to research a related topic: GRAFFITI ART of Philadelphia, and how it promotes change.

Source:

http://citynoise.org/article/9363/in/philadelphia@pa