This episode was originally posted on the Fresh Art International podcast. Activism has long been a way for artists and curators, writers and filmmakers to engage with global flashpoints, inspiring new perspectives on visible and unseen causes. Over the last century, public interventions, performative protests, and works created for public marches and events have led… Read more »
Topic: Social Justice
Two Strategies for Curating in the Gap between Art and Life
On October 17, 1979, six years after a US-backed military coup in Chile toppled the democratically elected government and established Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, residents of Santiago witnessed another kind of insurrection. A procession of ten milk trucks drove through the capital city and parked in front of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. The drivers… Read more »
Graffiti Art, Detritus, and Social Provocation
One of the last paintings to enter the Tremaine collection was Venus by the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, then 23 years old. On first glance, it might seem as if Venus were an odd acquisition, but that is not the case. A line can be drawn through the entire collection from Basquiat back to the… Read more »
Justice on View: Struggle, Liberation, and Protest Within the Exhibition Space
Justice is a verb. It is a constant and relentless action, not something that can be distilled down into a collection of objects. The physical representations of justice need people. They need movement. Otherwise, they simply serve as fragments. Unlike static art objects, materials of resistance—protest signs, t-shirts, pamphlets, white papers, posters, books, songs, poems,… Read more »
Conversations on Art and Activism
More than ever in our tumultuous society, art can no longer exist parallel to activism, but must be woven into our efforts to construct a better world. We offer the following conversations on the role of art in fostering social change. This video content was provided courtesy of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage… Read more »