Utilizing the Arts for Community Activism

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Utilizing the Arts for Community Activism

• Jennifer Wilson
• State Program Coordinator
• Students Working Against Tobacco
• www.OKSWAT.com

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Objectives

• Identify at least 2 examples of how the arts have
  been used in other social justice movements.
• Name at least 3 ways local youth can utilize the
  arts for grassroots messaging.

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The Arts Experience
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Incorporated by Big Tobacco
Countering Big Tobacco
Universal Issues
Visual Arts
Dance/Music
Literature
Theater/Film
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Disclaimer Some of the images may be
disturbing and politically charged. This
presentation is for educational purposes only.
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Visual Arts Movement to abolish the death penalty
Abolish the Death Penalty, 2000 by Malaquias
Montoya
Abou Ghraib, 2005 By Malaquias Montoya
Source www.MalaquiasMontoya.com
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Visual Arts Chicano Movement
Death of Ruben Salazar, 1986 by Frank Romero
La Vista en las Nubes, 2000 by Antonio Rael
Source www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/10307
-antonio-raels-art-gallery www.romerostudios.net
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Visual Arts Chicano Movement
We are Not a Minority by Mario Torero
Pilgrim by Yolanda Lopez
Source www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/pages/c
ol_2000_114.html
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Visual Arts Chicano Movement
Cesar Chavez by Alfredo Arriguin
Sun Mad, 1982 by Esther Hernandez
Source www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/pages/c
ol_2000_114.html
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Visual Arts HIV/AIDS
All that Glitters, 1991 by
Afrekka Jefferson
Power of Performance, 1997
by Afrekka Jefferson
Source http//www.thebody.com/content/art45918.ht
ml
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Visual Arts HIV/AIDS
Africa Freedom Day by Judy Ann
Free Your Demons by Nancer LeMoins
Source http//www.thebody.com/content/art45918.ht
ml
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Dance/Music
New Dance Group, 1932
Tito Puente Focused on the Cuban Revolution

• Midst of Great Depression
• Dancers were all from the labor class
• Brought political and social issues to the
  forefront

Source ndg.org ebay
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Dance/Music

• Revolutionary politics
• EZLN
• Cultural Imperialism
• Corporate America
• Oppression

Source Ebay ratm.com
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Theater/Film
Federal Theater Project, 1935 Created by the New
Deal government
El Teatro Campesino affiliated with the United
Farm Workers
Sourcepbs.org/now/arts/politicaltheater.html
elteatrocampesino.com
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Literature The Civil Rights Movement
The Last Poets Affiliated with the
Black Panther Party
Maya Angelou
Amiri Baraka
Source www.math.buffalo.edu/sww/LAST-POETS/last_
poets0.html amiribaraka.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou
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Literature The American Indian Movement
Raul R. Salinas
John Trudell
Source www.raulrsalinas.com
www.dickshovel.com/lsa13.html
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Digital Expression Movement
Jenny Holzer, Guerilla Artist
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Digital Expression Movement
Jenny Holzer, Guerilla Artist
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Digital Expression Movement
Jenny Holzer, Guerilla Artist
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Digital Expression Movement
Jenny Holzer, Guerilla Artist
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Why Sponsor the Arts? Philip Morris Bates
Proposal-1988
PM takes advantage of public good will toward
the arts by converting a cigarette pack into a
piece of art. It responds to the social pressure
against cigarettes by using packaging with
universal interest and appeal.

• The PM concept, because of its visual arts
  positioning, provides strong opportunities in
  each of the key marketing areas.
• Packaged in a variety of 10 different works of
  original commissioned art. Ten of the most
  important contemporary artists will be invited to
  submit designs.

The art world has traditionally been an obvious
place for trends in fashion and lifestyle. The
news created by artist involvement in a new brand
will immediately put the product in the hands of
trendsetters and newsmakers.
Source Legacy Documents 2041116126
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Why Sponsor the Arts? The Case of the Imagine
Festival
Through sponsorship of this event, Philip Morris
will have an unprecedented window of opportunity
to innovatively market itself through one of the
most important, up and coming International Arts
Festival!

• Four Key Areas of Interest for Philip Morris
• Political Leverage
• Educational Environmental Tie-In
• Advance Promotions
• On-Site Visibility Promotions

Source Legacy Documents 2042915757
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Why Sponsor the Arts? The Case of the Imagine
Festival

• The Realization of Philip Morris Marketing Goals
  Utilizing the Imagine Festival
• Help Philip Morris to be perceived as a company
  that gives something back to its consumers and
  the community.
• It will break through the clutter of the market
  place and cement Philip Morris brands with loyal
  consumer audiences.
• Increase Philip Morris sales in the tri-state
  area.
• Grass roots based events and causes are
  the place to be for Corporate America
  in the 90s.

Source Legacy Documents 2042915757/65
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Visual Arts Industry Sponsorships
G U G G E N H E I M M U S E U M
Abstraction in the Twentieth Century Total Risk,
Freedom, Disciplineis sponsored by Philip
Morris Companies Inc. February 9, 1996 - May 12,
1996
Vasily Kandinsky, 1912
Source Legacy Documents 2044730275
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Visual Arts Industry Sponsorships
Source Legacy Documents 2047916130
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Dance/Music Industry Sponsorships
Imagine ME Teaching Fred Astaire
Appeared in the January 1950 editions of
Comic Weekly, Metropolitan Sunday Newspaper,
Independent Comics
Source Legacy Documents 502473314
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Dance/Music Industry Sponsorships
September 16, 1994 Nashville, TN
Ray Bowers Lisa September 1998
Source Legacy Documents 502473314
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Dance/Music Industry Sponsorships
Health Advocates Protest Tobacco Sponsorship of
Alicia Keys Concert in Indonesia
WASHINGTON, DC International public health
advocates are calling on U.S. singing star Alicia
Keys to withdraw tobacco industry sponsorship of
her July 31 concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, and
are condemning tobacco giant Philip Morris
International for sponsoring the concert as a way
of marketing cigarettes to children. The concert
is being sponsored and heavily advertised by
Philip Morris International and its Indonesian
subsidiary Sampoerna.
Update Alicia Keys snubs out cigarette branding
from gig, Associated Press, August 1, 2008
Source Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, July 24,
2008
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Theater/Film Industry Sponsorships
Clairesse Agnew, 1890 Actress
Jean Harlow, 1936 Carreras British Tobacco
Source Ebay
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Theater/Film Industry Sponsorships
Source Legacy Documents 503093889
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Extra! Extra! News Flash!
Big Tobacco cuts arts funding in New York
City By Clare Hurley1 November 2007 Altria
Group, the recently assumed name of Philip Morris
Companies, announced this month that because of
corporate restructuring, it would no longer be
making its 7 million annual contribution to the
arts in New York City.
Fatal funding tobacco and the arts OTTAWA   
Sept. 26, 2003 A small Ottawa orchestra is torn
between its need for funding and the morality of
taking money from the tobacco industry.
Source New York Sun Capital News Online
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Extra! Extra! News Flash!
Seattle arts scene has a sly new patron -- Big
Tobacco Tuesday, February 3, 2004 (excerpts
below) Considering Vain hair salon's punk/vegan
image -- edgy with an undercurrent of good for
you -- the smoking lounge comes as a
surprise. Brown Williamson Tobacco Corp. paid
for the smoking lounge as part of a subtle new ad
campaign. It debuted in Seattle last year and is
designed to win new friends for an old brand,
Lucky Strike. Not only that, teams of attractive
young Seattle smokers are on Lucky's payroll,
hanging out in bars and passing the word about
Lucky-sponsored arts events. The teams don't pass
out cigarettes, partly because companies are
barred from that in King County and partly
because that would be too direct for this kind of
campaign, known as guerrilla advertising.
Vain, a hair salon with art gallery space. Vain
has a deal with Brown Williamson Tobacco Corp.
money for the salon's art programs in return for
understated promotion of cigarettes.
Unlike Philip Morris, which used to sponsor the
establishment's version of culture, Lucky Strike
is going after alternative art and art-related
venues that attract youths.
Source SeattlePI.com
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Lawton SWAT-Oklahoma
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Lawton SWAT-Oklahoma
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Lawton SWAT-Oklahoma
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Lawton SWAT-Oklahoma
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Grant Union High School California
The TRUTH Wall Brighton Terrain Park, UT
Source blog.rideutah.com/?p37 Grant.k12.ca.us
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Project Girl A Multimedia Exhibition Guide to
Un-Mediafying Your Life

• Uses art as a means to reflect, express, and
  transform the way girls interpret and respond to
  popular media advertising and entertainment
• Camp featuring art and media literacy
• Art Openings

Respect Me by Kelly age 16
Body Tracing by Alexandria, age 14
Source Intermediaarts.org
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Email Art a contemporary art electronic
exhibition Every Monday for 6 weeks,
subscribers will receive an e-mail from a
different artist, selected from our preferred
e-mail contributions received within the first 5
weeks from amongst the exhibition subscribers.
Subscription to the exhibition is free.
The exhibition is looking at issues such as the
links between Mail Art and E-mail Art, the
Internet as a medium for communicating art, the
e-mail as an art product.
Source National Theater, Royal Academy, and the
Center of Attention, nostankyou.com
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Youth Theater y Algo Más

• Program for youth ages 14-18
• Explore issues that are important to them as
  individuals and as members of larger communities
• Turn them into short plays (in English and
  Spanish) that may entice food for thought and a
  platform for dialogue.  
• The program runs in the summer, fall and spring
  and meets once a week for three hours.

Source Artforchange.org
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Communityarts.net
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Source Communityarts.net
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Digital Projects Facing History and Ourselves

• Digital legacies (testimonials)
• 10-second films for cell phone transfer
• Show how students confront the tobacco industry
  in their home community
• Show how students challenged the social norm of
  tobacco use
• Explore what it means to be a leader

Source Communityarts.net
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
Partnership with the Art Club

• Safe environment for self expression
• Opens communication channels
• Builds teamwork and camaraderie
• Shares thoughts and messages with the public
• Helps move social norm change

Source Communityarts.net
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How YOUth can Counter the Tobacco Industry Using
the Arts
How can you utilize the arts for YOUR community?
Open discussion
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Closing SlideThank You!
Jennifer Wilson
State Program Coordinator Students Working
Against Tobacco (SWAT) www.okswat.com 405-271-3619