Good ideas travel. Explore books, research, organizations, and practical tools that help us understand what creative practice can do in public life.
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Albert Potter, Modern Music (1933-1936), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Irving Potter, CC0
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
Evaluation and Creative Practice: Research on evaluation practice in Australian creative organisations is a study prepared for Creative Australia by Aden Date. Released Sep. 2, 2026, this research provides interviews and case studies showing that effective evaluation often grows from practices artists are already using: reflection, storytelling, creative listening, audience…
The Health Humanities Consortium brings together educators, clinicians, scholars, and artists who use humanistic and creative approaches to deepen our understanding of health, illness, and care. The Consortium supports programs and practices that draw on visual art, theater, film, creative writing, and the social sciences to illuminate the lived experiences…
The Ethics Centre is an independent organization that helps people and institutions navigate complex questions about right action, responsibility, and the common good. It creates spaces for public conversation, education, and reflection so individuals, workplaces, and communities can make decisions with greater clarity and integrity. Through programs, dialogues, consulting, and…
Hyperallergic is an online arts publication known for clear, engaged reporting on how art intersects with public life. It covers exhibitions, cultural debates, artist perspectives, and the conditions shaping creative work today. What makes it valuable for Res Creativa members is its attention to the civic dimensions of the arts:…
Since 2022, online age verification (AV) laws have been introduced in 27 U.S. states with the declared goal of protecting minors from written or visual sexual material that may be legally defined as “harmful to minors.” AV laws require websites with such content exceeding a given threshold to verify the…
This issue of Dædalus examines what democratic citizenship requires as the United States marks its 250th anniversary. Its essays assess the health of political institutions, civic participation, public information, education, and the relationships that allow people to work across differences. For Res Creativa readers, the collection is especially valuable for…
Across Southeast Asia, artists and cultural rights defenders are increasingly being cast as threats – to public morality, political order and dominant narratives about gender, sexuality, identity, and belonging. This is especially true for queer and trans artists, whose bodies, stories, and performances often challenge the boundaries that states, religious…
The book Art Beyond the Edge: Creativity and Conflict in a World on Fire by Mark LeVine and Bryan Reynolds has the goal of generating a critical theory that can meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The authors propose a new and radical vocabulary, epistemological foundation, and praxiological roadmap…
Beautiful Trouble is a book, strategy card deck, online toolbox and creative campaign incubator. It is also an international network of artist-activist-trainers helping grassroots movements become more creative, effective, and irresistible. Beautiful Trouble believes in people power and the game-changing role that creativity, humor, joy, and mischief can play in…
This essay by Laurie Woodard explores the work of artist and activist Fredi Washington during the New Negro Renaissance. It frames Washington as an unconventional “Triple Threat,” not as an artist who dances and sings and acts, but as a performing artist, a writer, and a civil and human rights…
Charter for Compassion supports the emerging global movement of compassion to co-create transformation at all levels, by connecting, cultivating, and encouraging networks of compassionate action. The Charter for Compassion is based on a set of foundational ethics and principles that center around the concept of compassion as a guiding force…
People are losing faith in politics. There is a “triple trust” dilemma: people’s trust in institutions, institutions’ trust in people, and people’s trust in one another are alarmingly low. Important decisions get stuck or ignored. Meanwhile, many are drawn to authoritarian alternatives. DemocracyNext is an international research and action institute…
Design & Democracy believes that every aspect of democracy has been designed. Therefore, it can be designed differently. Design & Democracy is a research platform launched in 2019. Based in Switzerland and Portugal, researchers investigate the ways in which design and democratic practices intersect and overlap, and explore possible new…
Devoted & Disgruntled (D&D) is a UK-wide conversation about theatre and the performing arts, run by theatre company Improbable. D&D events, and the community that has developed around them, involve people taking responsibility for making better theatre and making theatre better. D&D has become a way to engage with the…
Based in Brighton, England, UK, Freelancers Make Theatre Work (FMTW) is a UK-wide grassroots organization supporting the 200,000+ self-employed and freelance workers who make up 70% of the UK theatre workforce, covering all areas of theatre, opera, dance and live performance. FMTW aims to encourage more transparent and inclusive conversations…
The Friends of Attention is a nonprofit group of creative peers fighting the attention crisis. They work to take back our focus from big companies that mine our minds for profit and power. Their first book, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement, is a bold guide that asks…
How Books Can Save Democracy argues that American democracy is in crisis as healthy disagreement has pivoted into negative, winner-take-all contests. Author Michael Fischer proposes that literature is an essential tool to rekindle the relationships and mutual understanding that functional democracies require. By participating in reading, writing, and discussions about…
More in Common’s mission is to understand the forces driving us apart and find common ground to tackle the most pressing challenges. It has national teams in Brazil, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. While there are similar forces threatening democratic societies, More in Common…
National Coalition Against Censorship’s Arts and Culture Advocacy Program is the only project dedicated to protecting artistic freedom within the United States. Launched in 2000, NCAC’s Arts and Culture Advocacy Program upholds artists’ participation in democratic dialogue by defending public access to their work and supporting their ability to freely…
Can art change the world? That was the question Columbia University asked Columbia Global Senior Advisor Vishakha Desai in a Jun 28, 2026 interview about Politics of Visual Arts in a Changing World, 2014-2024. Edited by Desai, and apanning themes of protest art, museum ethics, restitution, and institutional transformation, the…
Remaking Democracy provides a practical toolkit for people interested in social change, and effectively dispels all myths when it comes to the misuse of the term “democracy.” Instead, it harnesses the core of what democracy means in practice, and outlines a path forward for how we can build a future…
The Strother School of Radical Attention (SoRA) is a Brooklyn-based non-profit experimental organization dedicated to “attention activism”—a grassroots movement aimed at reclaiming human attention from the commodification and exploitation of coercive digital technologies. The group focuses on pushing back against what organizers term the “fracking” of human attention by big…
The prize-winning author of The Method reveals the forgotten origins of America’s culture wars-a story of late 20th century art vs. censorship, brimming with intense drama and fierce moral urgency. It’s 1988, the final year of the Reagan presidency, and the curtain is closing on the Cold War. In the…