Projects tagged "Activates (people)"

Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Watermelon Sunday - 100% Plant Based Cookout
Practitioner:
Watermelon Sunday
Date:
Jun 11 2019
Starting in 2019 out of the East Harlem neighborhood in New York, Watermelon has served as recurring series of cookout-themed events that are 100% vegan, while also centering BIPOC businesses. People from all over the city come to the reoccurring events to enjoy different vegan recipes and learn about different aspects of the vegan lifestyle and activism. Brands and organizations are welcome to participate upon coordination with the organizers.
London’s “Free Butt Plug Catalogue” Confronts Hostile Architecture
Practitioner:
A Chinese Artist
Date:
May 16 2025
Hostile architecture—urban design features like ground spikes that deter the homeless from lying down or slanted benches that prevent lingering—inscribes exclusion into our streets. In response, a Chinese artist will launch the Free Butt Plug Catalogue, an art-activism project that documents fifteen such spikes and anti–loitering benches across London and pairs each with a commercially available butt plug of the same shape.
Performance Obscura
Practitioner:
Ruth Simbao
Date:
Sep 1 2014
In her curatorial project Making Way, Ruth Simbao brought together works that complicated the idea of globalization’s effect on African nations, especially the idea that the new phase would usher in an almost frictionless movement of labor and capital across borders. Works by artists like Athi-Patra Ruga reflected on questions of how bodies moved through settler colonialist spaces.
How Fenty Beauty Changed The State Of Play In The Industry
Practitioner:
British Vogue
Date:
Sep 8 2017
The protracted queue. That was the first thing I noticed when I arrived. It was winding, unending and impossible to see exactly where it began. I asked one of the security guards if he had any indication as to the waiting time. His response was a “your guess is as good as mine” shrug. As the mammoth line snaked around the building, my heart sank further – it is a myth that Brits love to queue; we feel compelled to, we don’t love it.
Climate strikes continue online: 'We want to keep the momentum going'
Practitioner:
Climate Change Activists, Fridays for Future
Date:
Apr 22 2020
The large crowds and brightly coloured placards of the school climate strikes became some of the defining images of 2019. “There would be lots of chanting and the energy was always amazing,” says Dominique Palmer, a 20-year-old climate activist from London who has been involved with the strikes for more than a year. “Being there with everyone in that moment is truly an electrifying feeling. It’s very different now.”
Unleashing the Power of Art Through Artistic Resources: PIGMENT TOKYO Creates a Canvas Embracing People, Knowledge, and the Art of Tomorrow
Practitioner:
PIGMENT TOKYO
Date:
Jan 1 2015
Established in 2015 in the Tennōzu neighborhood of Tokyo, and attracting industry professionals and art enthusiasts from both Japan and abroad, PIGMENT TOKYO has emerged as an art supply store specializing in the materials and tools used in traditional Japanese painting, such as mineral pigments, washi paper, and brushes. However, it’s more than just a store.
A Fire in My Belly (A work in progress)
Practitioner:
David Wojnarowicz
Date:
Jan 1 1986
"Owning a vehicle, you could drive by and with the pressure of your foot on the accelerator and with your eyes on the road you could pass it quickly … The images of poverty would lift and float and recede quickly like the gray shades of memory so that these images were in the past before you came upon them. It was the physical equivalent of the evening news.” — David Wojnarowicz.
The Fearless Collective
Practitioner:
Shilo Shiv Suleman
Date:
Apr 3 2012
In 2012, visual artist Shilo Shiv Suleman started Fearless in response to the powerful protests that shook the country in response to the “Nirbhaya” tragedy in Delhi, India.
#KuToo Movement: protest against mandatory high heels at work in Japan
Practitioner:
Yumi Ishikawa
Date:
Jan 24 2019
Yumi Ishikawa, a Japanese actress, freelance writer, and part-time funeral parlor worker, started the #KuToo Movement because she feels it’s unfair she has to wear heels at work. She also feels that being required to wear heels is rooted in a cultural problem, one much deeper than physical discomfort.
Documentary ‘Softie’ and the bear pit of Kenyan politics
Practitioner:
Sam Soko, Boniface Mwangi
Date:
Nov 2 2020
Activist Boniface Mwangi on confronting corruption in his homeland, and director Sam Soko on recording his campaign Kenyan director Sam Soko’s debut documentary feature, Softie, opens with the film’s protagonist, Boniface Mwangi, sourcing 1,000 litres of pigs’ blood. “I’ve found a van for you. When do you want it? When are you getting the blood?” Mwangi asks.
Voices of Freedom: The Impact and Legacy of Tania Bruguera’s #YoTambienExijo
Practitioner:
Tania Bruguera
Date:
Dec 17 2014
The beginnings of the #YoTambienExijo movement were born on 17 December 2014, when President Obama announcement a landmark warming of the 53-year chill between the United States and Cuba.
“Don’t Call Me Chief”: Native Artists Protest Racist NFL Mascots
Practitioner:
No More Native Mascots
Date:
Feb 12 2023
PHOENIX — As Super Bowl LVII was getting underway in Glendale, Arizona, on February 12, artist and Apache Skateboards founder Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache, Akimel O’odham) was protesting racist mascots in the NFL by painting a mural-style portrait of Geronimo with the words “Don’t Call Me Chief” for a community event at Grassrootz, a Black- and worker-owned bookstore near downtown Phoenix.
Dirty Money in Art & Big Pharma
Practitioner:
Nan Goldin & P.A.I.N.
Date:
Jul 20 2018
Between 1995 and 2017 the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin brought in $35 billion USD in revenue for Purdue Pharma, most of which went directly into the hands of the Sackler family.
Calling Big Brands of Soda
Practitioner:
GreenPeaceUSA
Date:
Apr 5 2021
"This is the video that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé don’t want you to see. The big brands want you to believe they are taking steps to reduce single-use plastic BUT they are actually working hand in hand with the fossil fuel industry to produce even MORE! Watch now to learn that the actual “Story of the Bottle” has devastating effects on our health, planet, and communities!
Ella Daish's Giant Tampon
Practitioner:
Ella Daish
Date:
Sep 30 2020
Environmental activist Ella Daish has created a giant tampon applicator as part of a protest against single-use plastic. The piece is made out of period plastic found polluting beaches, waterways, and local ecosystems in the UK. Daish sourced 1,200 applicators from 15 different locations across the United Kingdom. Of the plastic applicators collected for the project, 87.5 percent came from one brand, Tampax.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson
Date:
Dec 11 2018
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has extracted 30 blocks of glacial ice from the waters surrounding Greenland and placed them in public spaces across London, where they will be left to melt. Called Ice Watch, the temporary installation is meant to serve as a visual reminder of the impact of climate change on the environment.
36.5 / A DURATIONAL PERFORMANCE WITH THE SEA: New York Estuary
Practitioner:
Sarah Cameron Sunde
Date:
Sep 14 2022
A site-specific, community-engaged process: Sarah and NYC collaborators gathered at the water’s edge every month from September 2020 (when the work was initially scheduled to take place but was postponed due to the pandemic) until September 2022, to build Kin To The Cove, a site-specific community-powered environmental public art process that connects local residents to the Cove and Water that surrounds NYC.
Shell Skull Stig: Art Not Oil Galleries
Practitioner:
Art Not Oil
Date:
Aug 5 2005
The group Art Not Oil did a campaign to raise awareness about the oil industry, and their funding of Art. "Art Not Oil has campaigned against Big Oil cultural sponsorship since 2004.
Book Burning Party - Troy Library
Practitioner:
Leo Burnett
Date:
May 8 2012
Troy, Michigan couldn't afford to keep its library open, so it scheduled a vote for a tax increase. A strong anti-tax group waged a dominating campaign against it. Posing as a political group, an outside advertising agency posted signs around town that said, "Vote to close Troy library Aug 2, book burning party Aug 5." We invited everyone to our Facebook page, adding Twitter, Foursquare, want ads, flyers and more to drive engagement.
Mesmerizing Flesh: The Visceral Corporeality of Tamara Kostianovsky's Textile Sculptures
Practitioner:
Tamara Kostianovsky
Date:
Feb 3 2023
For artists exploring themes of violence towards humans and animals, there is a fine line between thoughtfully engaging and needlessly shocking the viewer; being sensationally explicit can turn people away while being tacit or innocuous may fail to make an impact.
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Practitioner:
Date:
Mar 4 2026
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Menstruation Terrorism
Practitioner:
Kashafa Khan
Date:
Feb 7 2006
Menstruation Terrorism is the act of frightening folks with the visibility of menstruation.
Nadya Tolokonnikova - Pussy Riot: Punk's Not Dead
Practitioner:
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Date:
Jan 25 2025
Nadya Tolokonnikova is a Siberian artist and a creator of the feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot. Tolokonnikova’s political actions and wide-ranging performance interventions have established her as a leading voice in the fight against authoritarian power. During her residency, she will compose performances that demonstrate her multifaceted approach to resisting systems of oppression and dehumanization.
Fur in Madrid: Controversy and Critique
Practitioner:
Animanaturalis
Date:
Jan 21 2020
During a cold January morning in 2020, Animanaturalis, a nonprofit group focused on ending the suffering of animals across Spain and Latin America gathered to protest the use, production, and sale of fur in Spain. In a blog post on their website, the group discusses the horrid living conditions on fur farms as well as statistics and alternatives related to fur sales (Animanaturalis, n.d.).
Professor tracks rise in racism linked to pandemic
Practitioner:
Russell Jeung, San Francisco State, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA)
Date:
Mar 19 2020
Research from Professor and Chair of Asian American Studies Russell Jeung spurs launch of online reporting center to document COVID-19 discrimination.

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