A follower on TikTok alerted us to this course of study at CalArts (a/k/a California Institute of the Arts) in Valencia, California, US. CalArts’ MA in Aesthetics and Politics examines relationships among art, culture, politics, and society through critical theory and cultural studies. Immersing students in intensive critique of the relationships of culture, politics, and…
Why do some people focus on the “liberal” in a liberal arts degree when they could focus on the “art” part? I followed a seductive motion graphic right into a storm drain as if Pennywise himself were enticing me into the sewer. The graphic depicted the change in the educational makeup of America’s two major…
What would it mean for a museum to act not simply as a place people visit, but as a place where people help shape cultural and civic life? In “Cultural citizenship through museums’ place-based public programmes,” Lucrezia Gigante draws on research involving 21 interviews and ten cultural organizations in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, and…
Artistic activism isn’t meant to be just a set of ideas, it’s meant to be a practice. This workbook is a place to practice the skills necessary to becoming the most effective artistic activist you can be. It was developed by the Founders of the Center for Artistic Activism as a companion to their book,…
Cartooning for Peace is an international network of editorial cartoonists who use humor and visual commentary to defend freedom of expression, human rights, democracy, and respect among people of different cultures and beliefs. The organization grew out of a 2006 gathering convened by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and French editorial cartoonist Plantu following…
In Arts Initiatives by Refugees for Refugees: Forced Displacement, Creativity, and Agency, folklorist Lisa Gilman challenges portrayals of refugees primarily as victims or populations to be managed. Drawing on research in the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi, among Syrians in Türkiye, and among Uyghurs in France, she introduces people actively shaping their lives and communities…
The Civic Imagination Project explores how people and communities can envision a better future, recognize themselves as civic participants, and connect across differences. Based at the University of Southern California, the project treats imagination not as an escape from present conditions, but as a necessary first step toward changing them. Through research, workshops, storytelling, toolkits,…
TAIWAN — Taiwan’s White Terror was a decades-long period of authoritarian repression under Kuomintang rule. Beginning in the late 1940s, thousands of people accused of political dissent were imprisoned, persecuted or executed, while censorship and surveillance silenced public discussion of what had happened. Today, Taiwanese artists are bringing that history into public view through music,…
CAUX, CH — The 2026 Caux Arts and Peace Encounters brought artists, peacebuilders, policymakers and academics together in what organizers describe as a “living laboratory.” Rather than holding another conference about peace, participants experiment with how creativity, empathy and imagination can actually change peacebuilding practice. The program explicitly puts diplomats in situations where they learn…
NAIROBI, KE — ForumCiv brought together 20 artists from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania for its first joint East African Artivism Fellowship. Participants worked on civic storytelling, systems thinking, legal awareness, digital activism and safety, then created projects addressing police brutality, disability inclusion, gender violence, food sovereignty, land rights and statelessness. More than 600 people applied.…