In 2022 we helped more people bring more creativity, innovation, and impact to their pro-voter work than ever before

Read on to learn about what we accomplished!

This year, we set out to make civic engagement as joyful, vibrant, safe, powerful, accessible, inspiring, and irresistible as possible.

In the face of some of the most serious attacks on fundamental freedoms our country has seen in decades, we were able to accomplish truly extraordinary feats.

We helped turn out voters in record numbers, mobilized communities that have faced the highest barriers to voting, and used the full powers of art and culture to make a real difference.

Below we’ve collected highlights from our new Fellowship, workshops we led across the country, and creative campaigns we can’t stop thinking about.

supported over 200 actions across 23 creative campaigns reaching nearly 1 million people

led 15 workshops training 348 people in pro-voter artistic activism

worked with 34 organizations and 5 colleges and universities across 26 states

This year we launched a new program: the Unstoppable Voters Fellowship. For our inaugural cohort, we selected 5 fellows: Steve Alfaro with Poder Latinx, Andrew Dinwiddie with Democrasexy, Céshia Elmore with New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Aileen Loy with Fair Count, and Alannah Ray with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Panthers Vote.

Our 5 Unstoppable Voters Fellows brought big, bold ideas to help their communities around the country vote during the election season: with huge whale kites across Georgia, mystery bags that took the mystery out of voting in Wisconsin, witchy rituals and Texorcisms in Austin, poetic protests in Pennsylvania, and votaco pledges in Atlanta.

We’ll be offering more Fellowships in 2023 — sign up for our newsletter to hear about your next chance to join us!

One of our major focuses this year has been leading trainings and workshops to support voting champions’ vital work and push the boundaries of what pro-voter activism can be.

In 2022, we held 15 workshops, training 348 people across 38 organizations in 26 states. We were able to conduct many of these trainings in-person — for the first time in the program’s history! — enabling us to travel the country and get on the ground to help voting champions, young and old, novices and veterans, working on a wide range of pro-voter issues.

Here are just a few of our favorites from the past year!

We started the year off by leading a workshop with friends For Freedoms for leaders fighting to bring fair representation to DC’s 700,000+ residents by making our capital a state. We worked with the League of Women Voters of DC, DC Vote, 51 for 51, Statehood4DC, Long Live Go-Go, and inspired and inspiring folks from across the country who understand the need to make DC a state as the social justice issue it is.

We were thrilled to support many of the creative campaigns that came out of our workshop, including the Apollo 51 Mission to Land a New Star on the Flag. Developed by janet e. dandridge, Mike Litt, and Anne Stauffer, with design by @csrmxt, we’ll continue supporting the project into 2023. Look out for it when you’re in DC!

On Vote Early Day, October 28, 2022, hundreds of high school students gathered at Philadelphia’s City Hall for a Teens March on the Ballot Box civic extravaganza. As conceived by Unstoppable Voters Action Accelerator participant Lisa Jo Epstein of Just Act, teens paraded with pride, voted en masse, were cheered on by their peers, and spoke beautifully about why voting was so important to them.

The event was a huge civic success, and students are already planning their voting parades for next year.

Who knew whales were the key to getting out the vote in Georgia?

Unstoppable Voters Fellow Aileen Loy!

Working with her organization Fair Count, Aileen added whimsy and wonder to voting events across Georgia by flying giant whale kites and leading kid-friendly whale activities.

With the help of these whales, Aileen and Fair Count worked to collect 40,000 Commit To Vote cards in the 40 Georgia counties where there are many people who are registered to vote, but they don’t vote either at all or often.

Reach out to us — we’d love to hear from you! We offer trainings, fellowships, research, resources, and so much more.

You can also sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date with open calls, upcoming workshops, and lots of other exciting Unstoppable Voters news.

Through the Center for Artistic Activism’s expansive Unstoppable Voters program, we support creatively risk-taking, strategic, ambitious organizations, people, and projects that address urgent and specific anti-voter attacks. We provide training and community building for individuals and groups who are passionate about protecting the freedom to vote and bringing the needed innovation to that fight. And we provide funding and support to help manifest that innovation and bring real, measurable impact. To date, we’ve helped over 80 organizations and over 900 individual activists, artists, and everyone in between make voting accessible, safe, joyful, powerful, and irresistible.

The Lost Episode! We recorded this episode over 2 years ago and dug it out of the vaults for you! We left off at episode 12 – The Chevy Suburban.

Superstores, supercenters, megastores! These aren’t big boxes, they are GIANT boxes and inside are not only swaths products, but on-brand restaurants or services like opticians and hairdressers. Yes, we could have gone to Bed Bath & Beyond, explored the cafe at the top floor of a Nordstrom’s, or even wandered around a Walmart. But you know how we do, we chose Bass Pro Shops! Listen as Pat, Steve, and Steve go through the lifecycle of a retail outing, from excited to disenchanted. Steve and Pat get kinda uncomfortable, but that’s the point!

Bass Pro Shops is a hunting, fishing, camping, and outdoor clothing and recreation chain started in Springfield Missouri but, while they started in the south, they have stores across the country. They own the brand Cabela’s and have over 175 stores bringing in $8 billion in revenue in 2018. Bass Pro Shops sponsor NASCAR drivers and host the NRA’s National Sporting Arms Museum in their flagship Springfield store.

Their Bass Pro Shops “Outdoor World” stores include restaurants, aquariums, open ponds with live fish and boats, taxidermy, bowling alleys, as well as shooting and archery ranges and classes on outdoor skills.

Sound Note: This show was recorded in a superstore and moving car – and given that it still sounds good! Thanks to Jimmy Bigbee Garver who recorded, edited, and mixed this episode.

We want to thank our sponsor who made this episode of the Pop Culture Salvage Expeditions possible, Bass Pr– just kidding! That’s never gonna happen. This show is paid for by donations to the Center for Artistic Activism, a 501.3c non-profit organization.

If you like our work – donate! (It’s a tax-deductible and a little bit goes a long way)

DONATE!

“It’s a brand new car!” The gang hit the road in a 2018 Chevrolet Suburban SUV. Rugged, automation, comfort, and luxury – how can we use these lessons in our activism?

Sound Note: This show was recorded in a moving car. Thanks to Jimmy Bigbee Garver who recorded, edited, and mixed this episode.

Why the Suburban? It’s the longest continuous use automobile nameplate in production, starting in 1935, and has traditionally been one of General Motors’ most profitable vehicles.

Chevrolet Suburban – Wikipedia

We were driving the 11th Generation of the Suburban. Truck front, station wagon back: it’s the reverse mullet of the Chevy truck line.

If you’re not familiar with the Suburban…

We want to thank our sponsor who made this episode of the Pop Culture Salvage Expeditions possible, The Chevrol– just kidding! That’s never gonna happen. This show is paid for by donations to the Center for Artistic Activism, a 501.3c non-profit organization.

If you like the show – donate! (It’s a tax-deductible and a little bit goes a long way)

DONATE!

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we heard from art activists Diana Arce, Elliot Crown, Mark Read of The Illuminator, and André Leipold of the Center for Political Beauty.

From Stephen Duncombe, co-founder of the Center for Artistic Activism:

“I’m very interested in metrics which are relative to what artistic activists want to do\…I think it’s too arrogant to say, ‘here’s the one path to success’ – that doesn’t get to the nuances of how artistic activism works. But I do think we need to demand that people have an idea of what they want to have happen and have criteria, their own criteria, for measurements of: are we moving closer to it or farther away from it? Because without those measurements how do you know if what you’re doing actually works?”

Photo credit: Elliot Crown (Pictured: Elliot Crown in costume).

How do we know when something has succeeded or failed? We “measure” it with parameters called **metrics. **

Everyone has different metrics of success and failure; it’s up to you to choose your own. These may be statistical (i.e. how many people showed up to my event?), but they could also be more intangible (i.e. a story someone shared about changing their actions).

Remember the affect/effect relationship when figuring out your metrics of success and failure. If someone told you that your work made them feel a certain way, great (that’s the affect). But did they do something different (that’s the effect) based on that feeling? We’re shooting for a tangible effect in artistic activism.

Going back to your objectives/goals can help you to determine your metrics.

Music By (in order of appearance):

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

For more information on the Center for Artistic Activism, visit: https://c4aa.org

This was a mini-series, and this was the last episode. The Pop Culture Salvage Expeditions will return to this feed in the future.

Thanks again to Sarah J Halford, creator and host of Creative Resistance: The Podcast Mini-Series

Sarah J Halford is an academic and activist based in Boston. She has worked closely with the Center for Artistic Activism as a research fellow, conducting fieldwork for the Æfficacy project. Additionally, she worked as a fellow of the Urban Democracy Lab and acted as lead researcher in projects for the British Council. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate of Sociology at Brandeis University, where she is conducting research on social movements and culture.

Sarah received a Master of Arts in 2017 from the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she created and produced a podcast mini-series, entitled Creative Resistance, as her thesis. After collecting interviews with art activists from around the world, she identified several recurring themes in her data and dedicated an episode in the mini-series to each of them. Creative Resistance is meant to act as a widely-accessible pedagogical resource for artists and activists alike, and is an example of the growing trend of research projects that utilize free and public mediums for dissemination.

She extends her deepest gratitude to Stephen Duncombe and the entire team at the Center for Artistic Activism for providing the support, opportunity, and platform necessary for her work.

Wow, that was great right?

Well, your donations help programs like this happen. The Center for Artistic Activism is a 501.3(c) non-profit – we do this because we love it. If you love it to – donate! A little bit, (or a lot). We make it easy and we have great thank you gifts: c4aa.org/donate

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we heard from art activists: Ron Goldberg, Elliot Crown, Avram Finkelstein

“Well, it was pretty nightmarish actually. In 1984 – it was before Rock Hudson was diagnosed, Reagan had never mentioned the word, it was a very private moment to be experiencing what I did…Of course, I thought I was going to die myself – there was no HIV test back then, so you just had to make assumptions about yourself. And you have to realize people were literally dying in hospital corridors and being thrown out of their apartments and dying on the street. It was really bad! It’s impossible to understand how bad it was.”

Photo credit: Avram Finkelstein (pictured at center, circa 1985)

Context can make or break any action. It is perhaps the single most important element of artistic activism, as there’s a context for your audience, your tactics, and even logistical things like location and the weather.

The various contexts that we’re working with need to be on our minds consistently when creating artistic activism, and a helpful way to do that is to practice shifting our focus from the little picture to the big picture and back again.

The more you look, the more contextual elements you’ll see that need to be taken into consideration.

Music By (in order of appearance):

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

For more information on the Center for Artistic Activism, visit: c4aa.org

Enjoying this show? We’re glad. Your donations help make things like this happen. The Center for Artistic Activism is a 501.3(c) non-profit – we do this because we love it. If you love it to – donate! A little bit, (or a lot). We make it easy and we have great thank you gifts: c4aa.org

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we hear from art activists Ron Goldberg, Joey Juschka, Diana Arce, André Leipold (Center for Political Beauty).

ACT UP protest of the FDA in 1988 Photo credit: (http://www.actupny.org/)## Major takeaways from episode 3:

A tactic is a thing that you do in order to reach an objective. In artistic activism, often times those tactics will be art-related.

A strategy is the overall plan for your work, which takes on different areas – often artistic activism takes on a cultural strategy, but there can be a legal strategy, political strategy, and so on. Strategies are also linked to goals, the big things that we want the work to accomplish. We create a strategy in order to direct the tactics and collect successful objectives along the way.

There is no one right way of approaching tactics and strategies in art for social change efforts. Ron Goldberg recognized that his tactics needed to be ready at a moment’s notice with the ability to be improvised, Joey Jushka wants her writing to be funny and imaginative, while Andre Leipold and Political Beauty want to throw you off your axis and provoke you into action.

Music By (in order of appearance):

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

For more information on the Center for Artistic Activism, visit: c4aa.org

Your donations help programs like this happen. The Center for Artistic Activism is a 501.3(c) non-profit – we do this because we love it. If you love it to – donate! A little bit, (or a lot). We make it easy and we have great thank you gifts: c4aa.org/donate

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we heard from art activists Avram Finkelstein, Mark Read and Rachel Brown of The Illuminator, Diana Arce, and Beatrice Glow.

“First of all, I think that art that isn’t about communication is about class. So, if you’re an activist who’s making art and what you’re trying to do or say is not clear, you’re no better than being in a Gagosian Gallery. It’s not activism if it’s not understandable. So, clarity is essential to having an audience understand it.”

Avram Finkelstein | C4AA.org – photo credit ACTUPny.org

“I talk about these domino-effects in a perfume shop, and that allures an audience that I find normally wouldn’t go into an art space. An art space presents this hierarchy, and in a shop it’s broken down into consumer language, which is I think becoming a universal, international language at this point. So, how do we find new ways of reaching out to folks? That’s the biggest challenge that I think educators and artists face today.”

Beatrice Glow | C4AA.org – photo credit – Beatrice Glow

Avram Finkelstein Full Interview Transcript
Diana Arce Full Interview Transcript
Beatrice Glow Full Interview Transcript

Music By (in order of appearance):

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

For more information on the Center for Artistic Activism, visit: c4aa.org

The Center for Artistic Activism is a 501.3(c) non-profit – we do this because we love it. If you love it to – donate! A little bit, (or a lot). We make it easy and we have great thank you gifts! c4aa.org

Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we meet Diana Arce, who is an artist, researcher, and activist based in Berlin.

Diana’s also the creator of Politaoke, a karaoke-style participatory performance in which audience members are invited to step into the shoes of politicians from their region by delivering portions of political speeches.

You’ll hear more from Diana in the coming episodes, but you can read her full interview with the Center for Artistic Activism here. If you want to know more, Diana and others are featured in our great Artist-Activist Interviews as well. And be sure to check out her website for more of her incredible works of artistic activism!

Art activists in this episode:.

Diana Arce

Diana Arce Full Interview Transcript

Major takeaways from episode 1:

Like this podcast? Help us out and donate a little something tax deductible to the C4AA

An additional art activist in this episode:

Avram Finkelstein

Avram Finkelstein Full Interview Transcript

Music By (in order of appearance):

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

Listen to more C4AA podcasts here.

Enjoy C4AA’s podcasts? Donate now!

Pat and the Steve’s have been doing C4AA work around the world, so we haven’t seen new Pop Culture Salvage Expeditions episodes in some months. However, we have good news. C4AA Research Fellow Sarah J. Halford has delivered Creative Resistance – a podcast mini-series on the basics of artistic activism, as told by the practicioner’s themselves.

In each episode, Sarah explores a fundamental theme of artistic activism through interviews with art activists who discuss examples of their work and some invaluable lessons that they’ve learned along the way. The entire mini-series is guided by the expert theoretical and practical knowledge of C4AA co-founder, Stephen Duncombe.

Episode list:

Art activists in this episode:.

Diana Arce

Diana Arce Full Interview Transcript

Avram Finkelstein

Avram Finkelstein Full Interview Transcript

For more information on the Center for Artistic Activism, visit: c4aa.org

Music By:

We’re back! Stephen Duncombe arranges a Sunday Brunch at Jane Restaurant in NYC. Steve Lambert brings a long his mom as the expert, a former Domincan nun with a masters degree in Theology.

For many people Brunch is a socially acceptable excuse to get drunk before noon and talk trash with your friends. Lambert is skeptical, but all are reminded there’s versions of this in many cultures (Sunday Menudo, Dim Sum, etc) and that most of these people are replacing church. So… what can we use here?

Rita Lambert talks about the idea of a secular liturgy. How do we create traditions and rituals to support our campaigns that incorporate social bonding?

Noun

via wiktionary

Patricia Jerido – The Man Who Invented Christmas and the many versions of A Christmas Carol

Stephen Duncombe – Ramen shops (coming to your town soon)

Rita Lambert – Christmas and Holiday decorations

Steve Lambert – The Good Place

Thanks to our listener turned volunteer editor: Mr. David Hart!