Stoking the Fire

Art as Activism

Russell Fayant & Christina Johns

Arts EducationCreative/Productive Component • Exploration of Ideas • Creative expression and reflection • Development of skills and abilities Critical/Responsive Component • Thoughtful, guided responses to arts expressions • Critical and creative thinking about art works • Development of language and vocabulary Cultural/Historical Component • Role and history of the arts in cultures and

societies • Factors that influence the arts and artists • Knowledge of Saskatchewan and Canadian artists

Arts Ed Curriculum PhilosophyStudents studying arts education will have

opportunities to:• express ideas using the unique languages of the arts • gain knowledge of the history of human creative

achievements • develop insights into community and global issues

explored by contemporary artists • become proficient with creative processes in a variety of

media including technology • learn about themselves and others through critical

reflection on their own work and arts expressions from around the world

• learn how societies and cultures construct and record their history, values, beliefs, and individual and collective visions

• communicate through the arts using their imaginations, ideas, observations, and feelings

• become aware and proud of Canada 's rich cultural and artistic heritage.

Critical and Creative Thinking • Guide students' analysis of various arts experiences

in order to deepen understanding of the concepts being explored.

• Encourage students to look for alternatives and give reasons for decisions; for example, by asking, “In what other way(s) could you show that idea or do that action? Is there anything you would like to do differently? Why?”

• Encourage students to approach content thoughtfully and discerningly by withholding judgements until students have enough information to respond in an informed manner.

• Allow for differing expression and interpretation of assignments, and encourage imaginative responses.

• Plan opportunities for students to think in images and to manipulate visual images for the solutions to a problem (e.g., by presenting students with a design or spatial problem).

Art as Therapy“The Arts have an incredible potential

to heal the individual, and to heal communities at times of need and turmoil. BUT.... perhaps even more

important, the arts can empower us to become agents ourselves towards the healing and empowerment of others.” 

Arts Empowermenthttp://www.artslynx.org/heal/index.htm

Bob Boyer

Drama as Activism“Theatre can empower 

individuals and communities. Theatre is a 

force that can unite, uplift, teach, build 

communities, inspire, and heal.”

(http://www.artslynx.org/heal/)

“True art takes note not merely of form

but also of what lies behind.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Playing with Fire - Deborah Barndt

“Playing – play challenges boundaries, the way things are. It can be a creative way of engaging people, ideas, power. Art making can offer a playful response to academia and political activism. At their most creative, art, activism, and academic work are about challenging

the old and ossified, about making new. Moving into unknown terrain requires

both humility and humour.”

“Art is lies that tell the truth.”

~ Picasso

Guernica – Pablo Picasso

Louis Riel“My people will

sleep for 100 years. When

they awake, it will be the artists that give them back their

spirit.”

Art as Activism – Deborah Barndt

“In challenging narrow definitions of art and activism, we reframe art as activism. Whether the modes are verbal or nonverbal, art making that ignites people’s history, recovers repressed memory, builds community, and strengthens social movements is in itself a holistic form of action.”

“Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one

valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.”

~ Georges Braque

“Art is the Queen of all sciences communicating

knowledge to all the generations of the world.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Participatory Art“Suppose we thought about representation,

not in terms of a particular kind of object (like a statue or a painting) but as a kind of activity, process, or a set of relationships?

Suppose we de-reified the thing that seems to “stand” before us, “standing for”

something else, and thought of representation, not as that thing, but as a

process in which the thing is a participant…Representation understood, then, as a relationship, as process, as the relay

mechanism in exchanges of power, value and publicity…”

~Mitchell, 1994

“Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can only be explored by those willing to take the

risks.” ~ Mark Rothko

Wildfire - Deborah Barndt

“Wildfire – When we imagine wildfire, we may think of it as a natural force out of human control. In an interdisciplinary environmental studies, however, we learn to see natural disasters as anything but natural, as shaped by human agency, by social and political forces. We question the nature/culture split, explore the symbiotic relationship between the human and non-human, and consider ourselves as part of, not separate from, nature. We need to embrace the wild, and passionate in ourselves in order to make change.”

Music as Activism

Music as Activism“Social movements are not merely

political activities. Perhaps more importantly, they provide spaces for cultural growth and experimentation, for the mixing of musical and other

artistic genres and for the infusion of new kinds of meaning into music.”

Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Tradition in the Twentieth Century ~ Eyerman & Jamison

“Art activism is not a service to be bought or sold, but art that

defends and agitates towards change, tries to clearly articulate issues, has the ability to remind us of the connections between us, thereby inspiring the people

to devise strategies and actions."

~ Alice Lovelace (Author, Poet)

Where do we go from here?• What kind of artist are you?

• How will you ignite your artistic “wildfire”?

• What form of art activism will you take or try?

• How can you help students, friends, colleagues to view the world differently?

• What are some everyday ways to include art into your life?

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before

starting to improve the world."

~ Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952