Course Info: CSI-0223

CourseCSI-0223 Artivism
Long TitleArtivism: Art, Activism, and Performance as Subversive Forms of Social Action, Political Expression and Community Building
Term2019S
Note(s) Satisfies Distribution
Textbook information
Meeting InfoR.W. Kern Center 202 on M from 4:00-7:00
FacultyWilson Valentin-Escobar
Capacity25
Available1
Waitlist2
Distribution(s) Power, Community and Social Justice
Cumulative Skill(s)Multiple Cultural Perspectives
Additional InfoStudents are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.
Description

In moments of political and economic crisis, activist-artists, or artivists, often respond to the call for social change. They generate art as social action and also help realize a new social world into being. Drawing from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, this seminar investigates the "who, what, where, when, why and how" of creative artistic resistance. We will discuss the inter-relationships between: art, activism, and the social imagination; the tensions between the "real" and the "imaginary"; public art and community engagement; the role of art in social movements; the function and responsibility of artistic institutions (museums, community art centers, etc.); the relationship between art, gentrification, and creative economies in under-resourced communities; how art can build new or alternative public sphere(s); analyze political art vs. activist art; and understand community-based art vs. art-based community making. The course emphasizes socially engaged art as a collective participatory practice that facilitates emancipation and transformation.