2023年7月27日

If art is meant to evoke, then art activism has the potential to change the world.

Art has always been used as a tool to influence or protest, 和 that has certainly been true in the United States. 最近, art has been used in reaction to debates on civil rights, 战争, 艾滋病, 堕胎等等.

路程Galliera,香港大学副教授 艺术历史浩博体育app, has been studying art activism for the past decade 和 recently published a book on the subject. 今年夏天, she 和 two of her students are examining art activism after the Occupy movement, which “seems to have opened the door to protest movements at a scale 和 frequency we haven’t seen since the 1960s,加列拉说.

“在过去的15年左右, there have been multiple definitions put for战争d of what art activism is. I love this explanation by Steve Duncombe 和 Steve Lambert: ‘Artistic activism is a hybrid practice that marries the creative force of art to the concrete results of activism,’”加列拉说. “Being an activist really entails having an idea of what needs to be changed 和 doing something about it.”

在美国, Occupy was a 2011 sociopolitical movement that expressed opposition to social 和 economic inequality fueled by financial 和 political corruption at the highest levels.

学生s explore Philadelphia, 纽约市

Susquehanna students Alex 盖伯瑞尔 ’24, an 艺术历史 major from Bayville, 新泽西, 摩根·霍夫24岁, a 创意写作工作室艺术 沙蒙双学位, 新泽西, have spent the summer with Galliera pursuing two goals: research 和 identify the themes 和 trends in current published scholarship on art activism since the Occupy movement; 和 examine art activist practices in Philadelphia 和 纽约市 in the last decade.

盖伯瑞尔, who has also been interning at the Jewish Museum, 纽约市, 对这项研究感兴趣吗, 他说, because it complements his capstone project.

“My capstone focuses on an artistic method called institutional critique, which calls attention to structural oppression 和 inequity within museums 和 the art world as a whole, an idea that is closely tied to art activism,他说. “I knew this project would provide me with invaluable experiences 和 information to incorporate into my capstone, 和 that it would also help me better underst和 recent scholarship on activist initiatives in the art world.”

Hough was interested because she considers herself to be both an artist 和 activist.

“I am interested in learning more about the art activism that has unfolded within the last decade, with the goal of better underst和ing the role art practices have played in advocating for 和 furthering social justice initiatives,”她说。.

Through weekly reading assignments, writing prompts 和 site visits in Philadelphia, Hough learned about the contemporary art activist scene locally, 国内和国际.

“I have been able to contextualize case studies from Mural 艺术 Philadelphia 和 Monument Lab through the theoretical frameworks we have learned about, 和 even had the chance to interview Philadelphia artists 和 activists who are working on projects in the city,霍夫说.

毕业后, Hough hopes work as a community arts director within a museum, furthering the critical relationship between local artists, 社区成员和博物馆. 盖伯瑞尔 plans to pursue an advanced degree in 艺术历史 or museum studies. He said his summer research experience has given him confidence in his future career goals.

“进入这项研究, I knew that 艺术历史 was my passion 和 that I was going to pursue a career in the field eventually,加布里埃尔说。. “I think that this experience really taught me that I am capable of pursuing those career goals 和 that contemporary art is truly where my interests lie.”

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