What does quiet activism look like? How can artists make choices to fight injustice and support causes they care about?
Hi, my name is Carrie Brummer and I help artists like you refine your skill and develop your unique artist voice. Today on Artist Strong I’m going to define quiet activism and showcase several creatives making use of quiet activism in their art.
What is quiet activism?
So, what is quiet activism? It’s about making choices in our creative lives that help shift our status quo. It’s about making choices in the systems and art in our lives to support people facing injustice.
Be a Craftivist
The first place time I consciously thought of quiet activism was after reading the book Craftivism by Betsy Greer. She got me thinking about craft in an entirely new way. For years I’ve succumbed to some of the elitist notions in art telling me my craft is less valuable the the “fine art” I create. There are issues of status around it. And yet, that’s exactly why more people can comfortably engage in craft and so many feel alienated when observing art in modern and contemporary museums.
This is a powerful, important tool for creatives who wish to use their art to help harness change. Think about it: craft is less intimidating, and that means it’s easier for people to consider the work and start a conversation around it. There is a lovely simplicity (even though much craft is super time consuming and skill intensive) that helps everyone enjoy the work.
This also means artists can push boundaries and still keep an engaged audience where sometimes, fine art can completely turn away viewers and further the divides people feel between one another.
The AIDs Memorial Quilt is a great example of this. People from all walks of life came together to create patches to put together in one large quilt. This built some awareness for people whose knowledge and understanding of AIDs was based in fear and not fact. It also helped communicate the great extent of the problem of AIDs, too, to people not personally experiencing loss from the epidemic.
In this situation the art was created specifically to help bring awareness and start conversations around AIDS. Hello, quiet activism.
Make Art to Raise Money
Sometimes artists create art to bring awareness on a topic, sometimes it’s to bring awareness and raise funds. You can consciously choose to create a specific artwork or project that benefits the cause you wish to support. A great example of this is artist Sarah K. Benning who creates embroidery patterns specifically to start conversations around a topic, but also then uses percentages of the sales of the work to give to a cause important to her.
Another idea is inspired by my mentor Marie Forleo. She is an entrepreneur and creative who has made a declaration with her company that a percentage of her profits goes every year to specific charities she wishes to support. Because of her, I decided to do this with my own art at www.CarrieBrummer.com. Two percent of profits of the sale of my art online goes to an orphanage I visited on my trip to Rishikesh, India. It’s a way to honor the culture and traditions that has helped inspire my mandala work.
We can have a lot of shame around making money while other people are suffering, but remember this: when we have resources, we have more to give others.
Secretly Educate
What I love about quiet activism is sometimes it’s in your face but you don’t even know it. It’s a subtle shift in the way we see things that gives us new perspective. Sometimes personal life experience can help us view the world differently, and sometimes we need others to help us to see this shift.
Humans of New York is a great example of art as a tool of education. Brandon Stanton started by interviewing people in New York and in his work you are able to experience the varied walks of life in New York. This opens up discussion about class issues, about issues of race and privilege, and helps us see that we all share the same kinds of problems as well as the same hopes and dreams for our lives.
He has consciously interviewed refugees in a special project for HONY as well. This act of interviewing and showcase individuals brings a topic that can feel so big, so controversial and threatening to some, down to the nitty gritty of real people with real problems. Hypotheticals let us stay safe in our choices and judgments of others, but when you read a story about a specific person and experience, that opens the door to sympathy and maybe even empathy.
Conscious Curation
Do you have a blog? Do you use social media to promote your art? Do you use social media for your social life? All of these resources are about curation. We choose what we showcase and represent in our lives. And this can be a valuable and important tool to help us set a tone for our peers and family in our lives.
For example, if you regularly showcase other artists either via your blog or through an Instagram shoutout, who do you choose? I can tell you in the beginning I chose people I knew because it was easier to get a yes for my interviews. But as time has progressed, I realized it was important to me to showcase artists from around the world to help share the amazing global community we are part of; I’ve realized I need to consciously seek out and search for unique artists that help showcase a diverse group of people and experience.
Not only is this important to my mission to normalize and celebrate creative process and creative spirit, this can also help communicate tolerance, openness to difference, and highlight social issues at hand. Personally, I know I have a long way to go with this, but awareness is half of the battle. So here I am, offering up this question to you: who and how do you curate your art and life?
What ONE person can do
Today, we can easily use social media to make pronouncements about where we stand. Personally, I think our actions are much more important. Do our actions and behaviors help support systems that keep people divided and down, or do we start to change our immediate environments by making choices that more loudly pledge our support for social justice?
Be Creatively Courageous: What is ONE thing you can do in your art life to further align your creative practice with the world you wish to live in? Is your art already quiet activism? Tell me more about it in the comments below.
I’m sorry but I’m not finding a single link to comment for the LFI giveaway spot. I’m an email subscriber but I can’t figure out where to put my name in the hat for the draw.
Hi April! The whole point is you can comment on any post. Just make sure your post includes the info that you are a LFI contestant and shares a takeaway from the post you choose to comment on. <3
I found this blog very interesting. I have had a lot of thought on quietly sharing my beliefs through my art. I also want to help my church more with the sale of my art. I am a LFI contestant.
Lani your goals sound wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing.
Carrie, this is such a powerful topic! It makes the “one” feel they are not so quite alone in this big ol’ world. I have several topics that come to mind: I suffer with chronic pain due to Fibromyalgia, as I know so many others do; I have a son who died from an accidental overdose to prescription narcotics, a national epidemic (ironically the very thing that brought me to art and begin grieving and healing); a divided nation preaching tolerance but killing each other in the street. Yet, there are still so many beautiful acts of humanity being witnessed in your own backyard at this very moment! My son-in-law has left my daughter and their five children at home the last two weekends in a row to drive to Houston and aid in the clean up effort. ❤️ All this during his 3rd year of Pediactric Residency, so I know his time off is precious. You are so right, as artists, we have opportunities to influence without having to use a lot of words. When we find a cause that resonates with us, we have an opportunity and obligation to courageous in our creativity. Thank you for this reminder! I hope to win a spot in LFI 2018 and learn more from you. -Sandy
Sandy, I love how you can also see the love being shared and offered in our communities alongside all of these problems we face. Thank you for being so kind as to share some of your life with all of us in this community and I’m glad to know you found art, and art found you!
I sure want to make art that will benefit abused women but havent foind other artists here in my ri y rural town to connect with and the local abuse shelter would not let me come give free art lessons to the women there. So im still at square one
Mary I can hear how frustrated you feel. I encourage you to think more outside of the box. Why couldn’t you blog online about your art and give a percentage of your earnings to the local shelter? That’s just one idea off the top of my head but I assure you there’s are many ways to make this happen if you really want to serve. ❤️
Hello Carrie;
Its funny how your blog came along now. Let me first say I am truly an artist on a very restricted budget and with a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s. So my dreams and desires of my art come from deep in my soul since I was a child. My story is way too long and deep but I know I have something to contribute. I have so much love and experiences to share with this world. If I am even so lucky to effect one thing or even one person to become the change our world needs then I will be and doing my true path in the arts. My soul lives to create. But sometimes I too am stuck maybe this can help me find my way. Thank you Carrie.
Savage Art Studio
<3 Hi Cynthia! Welcome to the community <3
Art does NOT have to be expensive. I know artists who only work with colored paper and glue, who collage, who sculpt with cardboard. So I assure you: if making art on a restricted budget is where you are, you CAN find ways to get materials and make the art you want to make!
Your goal is admirable and makes my heart happy. That's exactly what I believe art does for people. I hope the resources here provide inspiration and actionable steps for you.
This is a wonderful video.
I sometimes attach an encouraging word or scripture to art that I sell. Most recently, in Kicking in the Creatives fb group, my June challenge that I wanted to do was copyist. I planned to copy Emily Carr, Monet, Sarah Paxton, Adam Young, and perhaps ideas from Norman Rockwell. I was browsing in Rockwell work, and found that he too was a quiet activist. I was drawn (pardon the pun) to his ‘The Problem we all Live With’ completed in late 60s, towards the end of the Civil Rights Movement. I found myself studying more than the image of his art, but also what he was telling us through his art. It prompted me to read more about Ruby Bridges, and as I did that copy of art, I was emotionally into it. In my post, I wanted to share some of my questions with it. Someone local wants to buy it, but it was really just a sketch with my questions written all over it.
Sometimes people are called to speak out and stand up, and sometimes ‘quiet activism’ can be powerful even 50 years later.
Thank you Carrie (you are looking great btw)
Elsie thanks so much for sharing here. I love hearing how artists are inspired by other artists. Someone once said (I wish I could remember who) that artists are like mirrors and that has always stuck with me.
Carrie, Thank you for the video. I don’ t tend to use my art in a political way or to jump on a cause but as an artist I believe in living with “eyes open” and learning as much as I can about the world I live in. Art speaks to me in a directly and I admire artists that can express these times in a way that is relevant. I don’t believe we can be
complacent . Thank you for sharing quiet ways we can do this.
You are welcome Margaret. Let’s be the change we hope to see together <3