Projects tagged "Civil Liberties"

THE SAHMAT COLLECTIVE: ART AND ACTIVISM IN INDIA SINCE 1989
Practitioner:
The Sahmat Collective is co-curated by Jessica Moss, Smart Museum Associate Curator for Contemporary Art, and Ram Rahman, a photographer, independent curator, and founding member of Sahmat.
Date:
Jan 1 2015
In 1989, playwright, actor, and activist Safdar Hashmi was fatally attacked by political thugs while performing a street play outside of Delhi. His death led to the founding of Sahmat, an influential artist collective that has taken a consistent stance against the threats of religious fundamentalism and sectarianism in India through a vibrant mix of high art and street culture.
How Feminists in China Are Using Emoji to Avoid Censorship
Practitioner:
Chinese feminists
Date:
Mar 30 2018
Shortly after the close of this year’s International Women’s Day, China’s Twitter-like service Sina Weibo shut down Feminist Voices. With 180,000 followers, the group’s social media account was one of the most important advocacy channels for spreading information about women’s issues in China, but in an instant, it was gone. A few hours later, the private messaging app WeChat also shuttered an account for the group.
North Hall Takeover at UCSB
Practitioner:
a group of 12 black students at UC Santa Barbara
Date:
Oct 14 1968
For some, October 14, 1968, was a clarion call to the future. On that day, a group of 12 black students at UC Santa Barbara, tired of the unequal treatment and passive-aggressive racism they received as Black athletes — and as members of the campus community at large — barricaded themselves in the university’s North Hall.
Gravity of Equilibrium, an exhibition about Mass Shootings in USA
Practitioner:
Arts Letters and Numbers / Adela Wagner
Date:
Aug 3 2019
“Gravity of Equilibrium” revolves around Mass Shootings in USA. Mass shootings and guns are an incredibly divisive topics, one that is nearly impossible to engage opposing viewpoints in a discussion about. The majority of gun related debates devolve into charged arguments with parties feeling threatened. This effectively creates an environment where new perspectives and inputs are unable to be processed.
How Détournement Was Used as a Weapon in 15-M Protests
Practitioner:
Date:
May 15 2011
Just over a decade ago on May 15, 2011, a wave of social outrage began as the Spanish people collectively decided that they had had enough of the corruption, cuts, and inequalities affecting their country.
In Tamir Rice's death, artists found inspiration to carry on his legacy
Practitioner:
Cleveland Museum of Art
Date:
Jun 25 2016
Samaria Rice, left, and Terrence Spivey welcome the crowd at the Tamir Rice Sweet 16 event to raise funds for a new youth oriented cultural center Thursday, June 14th, 2018, at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Photo by Tim Harrison/Special to The Plain Dealer Inspired to carry on Tamir's legacy
Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ is a form of activism
Practitioner:
bad bunny
Date:
Jan 1 2025
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known to the world as Bad Bunny, has once again proven that his artistry goes far beyond reggaeton and trap. On January 5, 2025 — the eve of Puerto Rico’s cherished Three Kings Day — the Puerto Rican superstar released DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, an album that both celebrates his homeland and delivers a sobering message about its uncertain future.
Edward Snowden Hologram
Practitioner:
The Illuminator
Date:
Apr 7 2015
NEW YORK — Hours after police removed an illicit bust of Edward Snowden from its perch in a Brooklyn park on Monday, artists replaced it with a hologram. The group of artists — who collectively call themselves "The Illuminator" and are not related to the trio behind the original sculpture — used laptops and projection equipment to cast an image of Snowden in a haze of smoke at the spot where the sculpture once stood.
Performance Art “Not to Leave the Cage Unless You Have to” in Beijing Film Academy
Practitioner:
An anonymous student from Beijing Film Academy
Date:
Nov 22 2021
Direct Cause: Students' freedom to enter and leave the campus has been restricted for two weeks, but the university has not even issued an official document, only a verbal rule of "not leaving the campus unless necessary." Objective: To protest the arbitrary closure policy of Beijing Film Academy.
Zhang Donghui, a young artist, was detained for more than three months and had to pay 3,995 yuan in compensation for writing the words "Three years, I have become numb."
Practitioner:
Zhang Donghui
Date:
Aug 17 2022
Zhang Donghui, born in 1992, is a native of Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. He graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2017. He has been living and working as a professional artist in Beijing since then.
Facebook: Visual Platform for Marriage Equality Activism
Practitioner:
Global
Date:
Mar 26 2013
Marriage equality activism has taken aim at a new platform for global exposure: facebook. The social media website has seen swarms of users change their profile picture to a red image with a pink equal sign on top, signifying the user's support of marriage equality. Other users are using a blue image with a yellow equal sign, the Human Rights Campaign logo.
3,000 Candles at the Lincoln Memorial #SoAllCanVote
Practitioner:
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice
Date:
Jun 24 2014
At the same site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, we lit thousands of candles - one for each signature on our petition - to commemorate the legacy of brave freedom fighters Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner and to stand up for the rights that are once again in peril.
The Peterloo Memorial: A monument to discrimination
Practitioner:
The Peterloo Memorial: A monument to discrimination
Date:
Jun 6 2019
Disabled people gathered to protest at the site where a memorial to the Peterloo massacre in 1819 is being built. We are keen to have a memorial to Peterloo, but we want one we can be proud of, rather than the one under construction, which will be inaccessible to many disabled people.
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).
Protest against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Practitioner:
Sarah Constantin
Date:
Jan 28 2016
A Femen activist, Sarah Constantin, is hanged from a noose-like rope from a Paris bridge to call attention to the large number of executions in Iran as she stages a protest against visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. A near-naked woman hanging from a noose-like rope from a Paris bridge has sent a message to visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
"Reject and Protect" actions against Keystone XL pipeline in U.S.
Practitioner:
The Cowboy and Indian Alliance
Date:
Apr 22 2014
The Cowboy and Indian Alliance, a coalition of indigenous tribes, ranchers, farmers, stages a protest named "Reject and Protect" against the Keystone XL oil pipeline project along the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline route, as a part of series of demonstrations around the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, April 22, 2014, on the occasion of the World Earth Day.
This Taiwanese Calligrapher Brings a Message of Freedom to the Met
Practitioner:
Tong Yang-Tze
Date:
Nov 9 2024
The boulders hiding in the alcove of Tong Yang-Tze’s apartment testify to this Taiwanese calligrapher’s daunting perfectionism.
The Police are Present
Practitioner:
Luzinterruptus
Date:
Aug 6 2014
If you happened to be walking in the neighborhood of Madrid's Congress of Deputies this month, you might have noticed a strange sight.
Israel's Handmaid's Tale Protesters
Practitioner:
Bonot Alternativa
Date:
Mar 21 2023
Hundreds of women clad in red, their heads bowed and topped with white wimples, moving slowing in formation with clasped hands is the most unforgettable image from the weeks of recent protests throughout Israel against the judicial reforms proposed by the extreme right-wing government.
Response to James Cohan Gallery (October 19th, 2017)
Practitioner:
Chinatown Art Brigade
Date:
Oct 19 2017
October 19, 2017
‘The Bus’ memorial for Ken Saro-Wiwa
Practitioner:
Platform and Sokari Douglas Camp
Date:
Nov 1 2006
In 1994, the human rights and environmental activist KenSaro-Wiwa was arrested and accused of incitement to murder. Eighteen months later, following a show trial condemned by human rights organisations, he and eight other leaders of the Movement For the Survival of the Ogoni People were executed by hanging, an act that propelled the story on to the front pages of newspapers worldwide.
Pussy Riot Was Carefully Calibrated for Protest
Practitioner:
Pussy Riot
Date:
Aug 22 2012
DEPENDING on your taste, punk died in 1979, or maybe 1994, or whenever studded leather cuffs became a must-have mall-girl accessory. Now, suddenly, punk has been resurrected, stitched together anew in the form of the well-accessorized Russian women who call themselves Pussy Riot.
Traveling While Black
Practitioner:
Felix & Paul Studios
Date:
Jan 25 2019
The theatre has luxurious red velvet upholstered seats, grand ceilings and gilded trimmings. The rows of chairs stretch back into the ostensible blackness, with light beaming from the projector room. Ahead, archival footage of stylish black travelers pack the screen as an unseen narrator discusses the hardships of mid-20th-century black travel.
Bondage in Shanghai
Practitioner:
Mosaic Cat
Date:
Apr 18 2022
This is a photographic work of Shanghai during the period of the city's lockdown, in which the artist uses rope as a medium to explore the themes of government coercion and individual survival. In the image, the artist ties a small amount of vegetables distributed by the government for the following week with a rope and ties an antigen test to the rope as well.
Flower Power
Practitioner:
civilian
Date:
Oct 21 1967
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles.

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