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Vanessa Mason
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Can the arts be a medium for social change?
July 22, 2008 - 12:49 PM
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A lot of the discussion regarding development and social change revolves around the social sciences and social services as a means of promoting change: economics as it relates to poverty reduction; political science as it relates to corruption and transparency in government; health and education. What place, if any, is there for the arts (music, photography, etc.) in promoting social change, especially concerning international development?
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S
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
July 26, 2008 - 10:46 AM
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This is an awesome question. I personally think that arts is an underused resource for disseminating messages and tools for real-time social change.
Arts is probably the most accessible accessible medium for change since it easily transcends languages, cultures, religions, borders, socio-economic backgrounds etc. And as a consequence "arts" (in general terms) can not be as easily controlled by big business corporations that fund many of the social change campaigns around the world compared to more inaccessible mediums like science and economics.
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Vanessa Mason
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
August 2, 2008 - 02:55 PM
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What do you think is a good way to harness the power of the arts to effect change? Grassroots efforts? NGOs? Other individuals/organizations?
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Vanessa Mason
Subject to Change (http://vanessamason.wordpress.com)
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Melissa Leigh Snowden
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
August 2, 2008 - 04:36 PM
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I like this question! I don't think it's widely accepted to use Arts as a platform for creating change -- but yes for exposing it!
My favorite musician -- Kathleen Hanna -- uses music to promote social change no matter what music she makes. Some punk music was a "grassroots" kind of social change -- it disrupted the common peace by backlashing against huge entities, like Queen Elizabeth, police, war, President Ronald Reagan, Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Poetry from Sonia Sanchez ("Stockpiling", against munitions), June Jordan ("poem about my rights", against African apartheid and violence against women), and Denise Levertov (poems against the Vietnam war) were all Activist!
I don't really know if it's helped international policy in the past -- it doesn't seem like politicians have ever put that much sway on the arts. But I think with the way Internet is going, someday it may when people can connect more globally, digitally.
Thanks!
mls
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Vanessa Mason
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
August 20, 2008 - 06:31 AM
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I think of all the arts that music is probably the best medium for change because it is easily shared through radio which is the most prevalent way of sharing news in developing countries.
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Vanessa Mason
Subject to Change (http://vanessamason.wordpress.com)
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Melissa Leigh Snowden
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
August 21, 2008 - 06:34 PM
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Yes, true!
I thought of Photography also. A picture speaks a thousand words. It allows us to access people and places that we may never come across. And a photograph can represent many things--art or a document.... It can change people's views and be used by anyone ~ newspapers, artists, activists, documentarians!
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Nikki
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Re: Can the arts be a medium for social change?
November 28, 2008 - 03:00 PM
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Thanks for the post. This is a great topic. I really think that the arts are a fantastic way of getting people involved in creating social change. An awesome first site. People can be exposed to new ideas and new way of looking at the world that are able to move them. I think that songs, pictures, paintings, film, all of these things have the power to affect every person. In my opinion it is a much better way to get people interested and aware of the world than policy or other things that aren't engaging, that don't have the emotional component that art does.
That being said I think there are a lot of limitations to art after that awareness and inspiration stage, as a lot of the work that needs to be done to create change requires the traditional ways of thinking. Unfortunately beurocracies still prefer resolutions to melodies and proposals to paintings. I wish that there was a way to bring art and policy making closer together but I don't see one.
This post was edited on: 2008-11-28 at 03:00 PM by: nallison36
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