Projects tagged "Shifts (culture)"

Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.

Reclaiming the Monument
Practitioner:
Black Lives Matter
Date:
Jul 28 2020
Text by Jessica Stewart - In Virginia, one artist is helping his community reclaim a controversial monument in the name of Black Lives Matter. The Robert E. Lee Monument now stands as the only remaining Confederate statue on Richmond's historic Monument Avenue. While litigation ties up the statue's removal, light projection artist Dustin Klein is using his art to change the meaning of this contentious monument.
Problem Air Drop
Practitioner:
Ghana Think Tank
Date:
Jun 1 2016
In 2013, Ghana ThinkTank received a Creative Capital Award for Emerging Fields, enabling them to begin the multi-year ThinkTank at the Border project. In this project, they are collecting problems from civilian border patrols like the Minutemen, "Patriot" groups, and Nativist organizations, and bringing them to be solved by think tanks of undocumented workers in San Diego and recently deported immigrants in Tijuana.
Self Portraits of Zanele Muholi
Practitioner:
Zanele Muholi
Date:
Jul 25 2022
Zanele Muholi, the self-proclaimed visual activist and photographer, investigates the fraught relationship between post-apartheid South Africa and its queer community, who, despite being constitutionally protected since 1996, remain a constant target of abuse and discrimination.
I Love You America
Practitioner:
Sarah Silverman
Date:
Oct 12 2017
Sarah Silverman Wants to Pop Your Bubble With her new political variety show, “I Love You, America,” the stand-up comic aims to unite red and blue. But can TV really change minds? By Jason Zinoman Oct. 4, 2017
ACT UP protests
Practitioner:
ACT UP
Date:
Jan 15 1987
In 1987 with AIDS deaths in the thousands and government policy still criminally indifferent, activists formed ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) with the purpose of turning grief and fear into rage and action. 
Pantomime for Climate CHange
Practitioner:
The Red Rebels
Date:
Apr 4 2023
Replete with an unmistakable look, intense silence, and mime-like moves, the Red Rebels are, quite intentionally, riveting. In the words of artist and activist Doug Francisco, founder of the Red Rebels Brigade: "We divert, distract, delight, and inspire the people who watch us."
Design For Freedom Summit Shares Strategies For Removing Modern-Day Slavery From Building And Construction Supply Chain
Practitioner:
Grace Farms Foundation
Date:
Mar 29 2024
Shackles. Cotton. The Big House. Americans tend to think of slavery in terms of chattel slavery. Plantation Slavery. Slavery where human beings are bought, sold, and owned. The kind outlawed in the United States by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Slavery as a relic of the 19th Century. “Six of us lived, worked, slept in a 10-by-10 (foot) room without a bed, bathroom, or clean water,” Nasreen Sheikh remembers.
"Broccoli" Magazine: Looking at Cannabis Through the Lens of Contemporary Culture
Practitioner:
Broccoli
Date:
Feb 1 2017
Created by and for women, Broccoli is an independent print magazine based in Portland, Oregon. Although intended for cannabis users, Broccoli is an art and lifestyle magazine that bills itself as “playful, informed, eclectic, and thoughtful.” It encourages the discovery and appreciation of cannabis through explorations of art, culture, and fashion.
Fashion label Vaqar is dispelling conservative perceptions of what Iranian fashion looks like
Practitioner:
Vaqar
Date:
Feb 4 2021
Iran is a nation with a fine art tradition that stretches back thousands of years; its reputation for contemporary fashion design less so. Writing that from an external, Western perspective may read unduly dismissive, but it’s a statement that holds up even from within the country’s borders, Shiva Vaqar assures us. “Being a designer has never really been considered a serious job here,” she says over the phone from Tehran.
Daily Bread
Practitioner:
Gregg Segal
Date:
Jun 4 2019
Gregg Segal -- a California-based artist who is known for using the medium of photography to explore culture with the "sensibility of a sociologist" -- travelled around the world asking kids to keep a journal of everything they ate in a week. Once the week was up, Segal made a portrait of the child with the food arranged around them:
The Folded Map Project
Practitioner:
Tonika Lewis Johnson
Date:
Jul 25 2020
The Folded Map Project is a project by Tonika Lewis Johnson, a photographer and community activist from Chicago. The project aims to investigate and change the racial and economic segregation that affects the city and its residents.
Soviet Lives of Uncle Tom
Practitioner:
Dmitry Borshch, Regina Khidekel
Date:
Feb 4 2019
"Soviet Lives of Uncle Tom" 105 NY-110, Melville, NY 11747 February 4, 11 am – March 1, 7 pm Monday – Friday, 11 am – 7 pm, free admission Artist talk – February 28, 2 pm Please write to racc.ny@mail.ru or call (347) 662 1456 The artist is available for interviews
Mattress Protest/Carry That Weight
Practitioner:
Emma Sulkowicz
Date:
Sep 1 2014
Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) (2014–2015) was a work of endurance/performance art which Emma Sulkowicz conducted as a senior thesis during the final year of a visual arts degree at Columbia University in New York City.[1]
Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Mar 12 2025
“Everything is art. Everything is politics.” Globally renowned artist Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957) is celebrated as a disruptor of artistic canons and a champion of free expression. In his work—ranging across performance, photography, sculpture, video, and installation—he deploys humor and provocation, calling upon his viewers to examine history, society, and culture.
Actionplay To Present A New Musical THE SURFACE
Practitioner:
Actionplay
Date:
May 14 2022
Actionplay, a theatre company dedicated to providing autistic, neurodivergent, and disabled teens and young adults equal access to the theatre-making process, is pleased to announce their next production, the new musical comedy The Surface (or, That One Time Atlantis Washed Up On the Beach).
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.
Ai Weiwei’s Colored Vases: Clever Artwork Or Vandalism?
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 2006
Exhibition visitors have expressed feelings of uneasiness or even pain and nostalgia when seeing Colored Vases by Ai Weiwei1. The 51 vases that make up the artwork are originally treasures from the Neolithic Age (5000–3000 BCE) and the artist has dunked them in common industrial paint. Why did Ai Weiwei do it?
Woe Fie
Practitioner:
Angel Maxine
Date:
Jul 26 2021
Can you finish the lyric? “Your driver could be LGBTQ, Your Tailor could be LGBTQ,…” If you can’t, you may be a part of the majority who doesn’t know about the song Wo Fie. However, for those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and followers of Ghanaian musician Angel Maxine, the song has become a Pride month anthem.
People of Japan is a snapshot of daily life across Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka
Practitioner:
Mark Manzi
Date:
Mar 1 2021
For his latest project, Mark Manzi found himself outside of his comfort zone. For the Amsterdam-based photographer and designer, People of Japan was an attempt to break from his photography-first portfolio. “In the past, my work was very image-focused, whereas with this book I wanted to scan objects, collect receipts, record noises, add copy, and really create something visually striking,” he says.
"Printing Lost Culture of Ukraine" and "The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Brooklyn Apartment"
Practitioner:
Dmitry Borshch
Date:
Nov 13 2023
Both shows are supported by funds from New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and Materials for the Arts (MFTA). "Printing Lost Culture of Ukraine" November 13 – December 15, 2023 Monday – Friday, 10 am – 7 pm, free admission Ukraine House New York, 360 Merrick Road, 3rd Floor, Lynbrook, NY 11563
"Dying to Survive": A Movie on Generic Drugs
Practitioner:
Director Muye Wen (文牧野）, Yong Lu (陆勇)
Date:
Aug 7 2019
The screen portrayal of a cancer sufferer whose illegal import of foreign medicines into China spurred national policy changes has become a box-office smash as audiences flock to a rare Chinese film on a hot-button issue. Dying To Survive is based on Lu Yong, who was arrested in 2013 after illegally importing a generic cancer drug in a case that sparked public debate about high medical costs.
Hysterical: Radical Creativity
Practitioner:
Hysterical Collective
Date:
Mar 6 2024
For Women’s History Month 2024, Hysterical Collective presented: Hysterical: Radical Creativity – the third instalment of the annual charity art exhibition and cultural programme taking place in March each year. Co-founded and curated by Eliza Hatch of Cheer Up Luv and Bee Illustrates, Hysterical is a queer and feminist-led exhibition and event showcase; centred around community, collaboration, and activism.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson
Date:
Feb 13 2018
From Public Delivery: For Ice Watch (2014), he extracted 30 blocks of glacial ice from the waters of Greenland and in 2018 strategically placed them in front of Tate Modern in London . The ice was left here to melt. Ice Watch was to inspire public action against climate change, advocating for a rapid public response.
Activism Through Art by an Angry Feminist Whale
Practitioner:
Moule
Date:
Mar 3 2020
Inspired by the ecological disaster unfolding across the planet and driven by empowering underrepresented people, Moule, a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer, creates art that makes a statement. Dressed in a magenta blazer and wearing bright pink lipstick, she is as colourful and spirited as one of her illustrations.
Ghana Thinktank. Developing the first world.
Practitioner:
Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, Matey Odonkor, Maria Del Carmen Montoya
Date:
Feb 1 2006
Ghana ThinkTank is an international collective that “develops the first world” by flipping traditional power dynamics, asking the “third world” to intervene into the lives of the people living in the so-called “developed” world.

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