Topic

Arts & Creativity

Creativity is an abundant resource! People have the ability to come up with imaginative means to challenge and solve the many problems in our society. Creative approaches can be fun and attention grabbing, engaging new audiences and supporters and catching opponents off-guard. Here are many examples along with practical tips.

Creative Activism: Start Here

Suggestions from the Commons Librarians about resources to explore in the Arts & Creativity topic area – to help you bring more art and heart to your social change activities.

Human rights protesters, one in a skeleton suit wearing a military hat and one with the words "My Business is Making a Killing in Chile" on their back.

Grevillea: Creative Interventions in Western Australia during the 1990s

An interview with a member of the Western Australia-based Grevillea about how the group applied a dynamic and creative perspective to approaching issues such as militarism, pollution and international solidarity during the 1980s and 1990s.

Screenshot of a presentation title slide. The heading reads 'How to recruit more people.' There is a oval around the word recruit and a line under more. At the top in smaller writing it reads 'An organising storytelling lab'.

How to Recruit more People: Lessons from Rukiya in 350 Kenya

Rukiya, a 350.org organiser in Kenya, shares stories of how they recruited people for the African DeCOALinise Campaign.

Warm Cookies of the Revolution: Creative Approaches to Civic Health

In this article Denver, Colorado based group Warm Cookies of the Revolution outline how they use innovative arts and cultural programs to help people exercise their “Civic Health” and engage in social change.

Book cover that reads - Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance. Letters are in red neon lights.

Subvertising: Sharing a Different Set of Messages

Exposing the manipulation and damage wrought by the advertising industry and outline the ways in which subvertisers are fighting back.

Two protestors have chained themselves to the railway line.

Frontline Action on Coal FLAC: Ten Years on the Climate Frontline

Frontline Action on Coal (FLAC) have used blockades and non-violent direct action to oppose new fossil fuel projects in Australia.

Defying Censorship: The New Theatre and Till The Day I Die

Read an excerpt from the book, The New Theatre: People Plays and Politics Behind Australia’s Radical Theatre.

Close up of two Opera House building sails or the triangular parts of the building. On one reads NO WAR in red paint and there are people standing on top of the sail. They are silhouetted against a blue sky with faint white clouds.

No War Opera House Graffiti Action: An Interview with Dave Burgess

Interview with Dave Burgess who graffitied No War onto the Sydney Opera House to show opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003.

Front cover of a booklet. Illustration of birds eye view of people standing in a circle holding a parachute together. One person is looking up with their hands up in the air. The text reads a better world is paintable: how to make banners, stencils, street murals, parachute banners and more!

A Better World is Paintable: How to make banners, stencils, street murals, parachute banners, and more!

Tools, skills, and resources from 350.org to build capacity to run effective campaigns and movements to tackle the climate crisis.

screenshot of book cover called Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985. There is a collage of various book covers.

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1986

Radical Science Fiction – Watch videos from a symposium held in 2022 focused on the links between sci-fi and forms of activism.

Three people at a table outside with white tablecloth that has word BlackRock on it. The people are eating fake money. A banner in the background says When the last tree is dead, the last fish is caught and the last river is poisoned, you will realise that you cannot eat money. The woman seated on the left wears a sign on her chest that reads BlackRock is the real enemy.

“You can’t eat money”: An interview with Extinction Rebellion activist Jo Flanagan

Interview with an Extinction Rebellion activist about a protest against BlackRock in 2019. She explains how the action was conceptualised, organised & run.

How Artistic Activism can move us Toward a Better Future

A new book called “The Art of Activism” provides a deep dive on the process, principles, history and practice of artistic activism.

Lines of Resistance: What can the Old Left offer today’s creatives?

Lines of Resistance: A Symposium on Media, Arts & Activism that profiles research on the role of media and visual arts in activist movements.

crowd of holographic protestors walking on street at night with protest signs

Creative activism: Hologram protest

The practicalities and possibilities of using holograms to challenge and subvert anti-protest laws are explored in this case study from Spain.

Four women dressed up in hats, pearls with a 'prim' look.

Humorous Political Stunts: Nonviolent Public Challenges to Power

An exploration of how creative activists combine humour with seriousness via stunts to create change, including case study – John Howard Ladies’ Auxiliary Fan Club.

protestors with a banner that says Thanks but no tanks

Thanks But No Tanks: Learnings from Disrupt Land Forces [Brisbane: 2021]

Actions and learnings from Australia’s Disrupt Land Forces Campaign at the Brisbane’s 2021 Land Forces weapons expo.

ChangeMakers Organising School – Online Course (Videos)

ChangeMakers Organising School – Training (videos and slides) to connect and deepen knowledge to organise for social change.

ChangeMakers Organising School – Season Three

ChangeMakers Organising School – Training (videos and slides) to connect and deepen knowledge to organise for social change.

aerial shot of mural that says Black Lives Matter on road in between buildings in Seattle

The creativity fuelling the struggle to defund the police

Beautiful Trouble examines some of the principles showing up in the Black Lives Matter movement. Includes direct action, the power of ritual and joy, making the invisible visible, take risks but take care, and more.

Protestors wearing masks and holding placards gathering for a Black Lives Matter rally.

Make Change: How-To’s for Effective Peaceful Protest

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement this article includes tips and links to make what you need for safe, peaceful, and effective protest. Includes signs, effigies, banners, street art, ways to manage pepper spray and tear gas, surveillance considerations and interactions with police liaison.