Art + Economic Justice
The relationship of art and economics is continuously evolving, and the recent economic downturn has provoked and heightened social inequalities. New artwork and movements have emerged to fight for change and chronicle this upheaval.
The Art + Economic Justice collection features projects from Animating Democracy's Profiles as well as new work of the 99% movement. These projects range from a conversation on art and economic theory to theater productions that inspire audiences to think critically and act on social inequities. We invite you to peruse the projects featured here that delve into an array of issues from a variety of perspectives.
 Housing is a Human Right is a creative storytelling project that aims to help connect diverse communities around housing, land, and the dignity of a place to call home. We are building a collection of intimate, viscerally honest narratives exploring the complex fabric of community and the human right to housing and land, painting a living portrait of human rights. |
 Hotel Voices is a story of housing and inequity. The Revolutionary Theatre project co-written, co-directed and acted by writers, artists and poets currently living, surviving and sometimes thriving in Single Room Occupancy Hotels aka poor people housing in the Bay Area. Our cast of revolutionary poverty scholars are available to perform this powerful 55-minute production at your school, organization, hotel or shelter. Contact POOR at (415) 863-6306 or email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org to book the production. |
 In its Justice Cycle Project, Cornerstone Theater Company created a series of six original community-based productions that examined the complex ways laws shape and disrupt communities in Los Angeles. Immediately following each performance, audience members were invited to join in dialogue with Los Angeles’s civic and cultural leaders to discuss urgent issues of justice in the city and beyond. The four-year project began with Los Illegals, a bilingual play by Michael John Garcés that explored the issue of undocumented immigration. |
 As a documentary photographer and multimedia producer, Kelly Creedon explores social issues including economic and housing justice, labor rights, and immigration. She frequently partners with nonprofit and grassroots organizations to use image, sound, and story as tools to help shift public dialogue and policy around important social issues. Ms. Creedon is the creator and artist behind the project We Shall Not Be Moved: Stories from the grassroots struggle against foreclosure. |
 The Forum Project (TFP) is a New York-based organization working through critical pedagogy, Theatre of the Oppressed and other creative methods to engage individuals and communities to deconstruct and dialogue about the oppressions we face and to develop creative tactics for liberation. TFP provides opportunities through which individuals and communities can explore and understand the world, their communities and their lives by providing workshops, performances, curriculum development and other custom services for your organization or community group. |
 Gan Golan is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Artist & Agitator. His most recent works include the bestselling children's book parody Goodnight Bush, and the critically-acclaimed graphic novel about the economic crisis, The Adventures of Unemployed Man. He has 20 years experience as a grassroots activist, having worked on issues from housing, to policiing, to Global Justice and militarism. He has created giant Mayan God protest puppets with indigenous collaborators in Mexico, and dropped 4-story banners from buildings with supergeeks at MIT. |
 UTOPIA/dystopia project activities engaged both long standing and new area residents of Skid Row--including the homeless and formerly homeless, the working poor, immigrants and their families, and the area's burgeoning loft-living population--in performances, art installations, and public events to inform and broaden the public discourse on development in the city of Los Angeles. In recent years, civic policy in Los Angeles has generated the twin towers of utopia and dystopia: Bunker Hill, the redeveloped high rise financial center, and below it Skid Row. |
 The Allied Media Conference (AMC) is an annual gathering of the grassroots media movement. The AMC brings together those working at the cutting edge of social justice-based independent film, radio, print, web, Hip Hop, and youth-based organizing. The Allied Media Conference features multimedia, hands-on workshops, panel discussions, caucus meetings, an expo area where organizations share their work, and some of the dopest spoken word and music performances that you will ever experience. |
 Thirty-four artists were invited to create innovative and engaging artwork after a stimulating discussion on social and economic inequality, wealth distribution, and what is so taxing about taxation. Some chose to explore how to visualize analytical data. Other artists explored the capacity for art to spark an emotional response to the research presented by the Center for Advanced Hindsight. |
 On October12 and 13th, 2012, Creative Time coordinated their fourth annual summit: Confronting Inequity. The conference serves to advance the organization's mission of positioning the voices of artists at the center of public discourse. Presentations addressed recent upheavals in the international political and economic climate by focusing specifically topics of wealth inequity across the globe and the ways in which it erodes democracy. |
Occupy the Stage is a branch of Occupy NOLA that is dedicated to artists and artisans. We are committed to the belief that the arts and skilled trades are sacred. They belong to the people and are immune to censorship, gentrification, taxation or corporate consolidation. These are the basic necessities for civilization and are considered incorruptible. |
 Axis of Justice links musicians and music fans with local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice. Axis of Justice's web site includes a database of local activist organizations organized by state and nine national organizations. The Organizing Story Project is a series of essays and interviews describing successful organizing efforts to inspire and guide people interested in activism. |
 Puppet Underground is a puppeteer's collective in DC committed to using art and performance to support movements and grassroots organizing for social and economic justice. The group offers support for local social justice and grassroots organizing groups by offering workshops, shows, puppets, stilters, creative organizing strategy or anything else they can think up for us to do. |
 Abundance by Marty Pottenger is a community arts performance project gathering stories and exploring ways that people of different classes, races, and ages negotiate economics in their daily lives. The heart of Abundance is nationwide interviews with billionaires and minimum wage workers coupled with a year-long New York-based civic dialogue group that includes undocumented workers and millionaires. |
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 Air Traffic Control (ATC) supports musicians and managers who want to be engaged in social change by providing resources needed to develop capacity and coordinate partnerships. Air Traffic Control provides Tools & Research on its web site and produces a monthly newsletter for subscribing musicians, publicists, and managers. ATC also manages an education fund that helps musicians use their talents to effect social change by connecting them to activists, organizations, and issue campaigns. |
 Appalshop is a multi-media arts and cultural organization located in Whitesburg, Kentucky that strives to develop effective ways to use media to address the complex issues facing central Appalachia – a declining coal economy, a legacy of environmental damage, high unemployment rates, and poor educational opportunities and attainment. In 1988 Appalshop staff members founded the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), a media training program for central Appalachian youth. |
 BrushFire was an arts initiative showcasing key contemporary artists whose public projects engage crucial social issues such as immigration, the war in Iraq, food, sustainable energy, housing, the electoral process, the economy, health, and the environment. Taking place in highly visible public settings such as state fairs, urban centers, public parks and highly trafficked recreational areas around the United States, BrushFire aimed to enrich the environment for public discussion about the value of democracy in the crucial run-up to national elections in November, 2008. |