Call for Art
Certain individuals have found the name “Art To Change The World” somewhat pretentious. I admit, it IS a lofty goal. Historically, has it happened? I have been impressed with the role artists are taking in the current paradigm shift we are experiencing in the United States socio-political system.
1. Please be invited to send Nonpartisan examples to me at drb@bridgescreate.com. Remember we are a non-profit. Your originals welcome.
2. Please join our project to take all the whistle misprints from around the country and create an interactive educationally based sculpture to travel to schools. We may also make clothes out of the crazy misprints. Re-cycle, Re-create, Re-purpose.
Jillian Collins started our Collection:
Collecting examples of art that has changed the world was both an empowering and humbling experience. There are likely thousands of examples that could be included, and while only a fraction are included here, the impact was deeply felt. Some I was aware of, others I was learning about for the first time, even if they happened decades ago. It occurred to me that whether they were current works or something from the past, they all evoked a similar feeling: hope. Recognizing the power and beauty that art has at such an expansive scale is a gift, and one that I am grateful to rely on during difficult times. Art, in many forms, always has been, is, and will be something that people turn to, no matter the circumstances.
Guerilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985, born out of a picket against the Museum of Modern Art the previous year.
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First, Second, Third and Fourth Waves
Mixed Media
36” W X 18” H X 4” D
I have spent a lifetime pondering waves. Hailing from Maine, over the last 67 years I have experienced, and reflected on, the impact of waves on us as biological organisms – often fighting against each other. Where the waves meet is where the action is.
As a scholar, I have spent many hours examining, oftentimes in excruciatingly minute detail, theoretical waves of human thought. Waves deliver tranquility, sustenance and insight – along with trash and terror.
In reconsidering the history of feminist thought, I discovered Christine de Pizan, born in 1365 in Venice, Italy and who left us a collection of brave and still relevant reflections. I have created what I am now calling a sextet. A sextet is a group of six people or objects. Sometimes they sing.
I feel that Three Waves, which has the look and feel of a very elegantly painted Mexican or Russian icon, starts a song which I hope to facilitate with feminists from all Waves – and beyond. When opened, the sextet interior space features an homage to the Guerrilla Girls, one to The Blazing World character, Harriet Burden, by Minnesota author Siri Hustvedt, and finally, one arresting example from Minneapolis Third Wave feminist Kate Renee.
Diego Rivera National Palace Murals
The National Palace Frescos by Diego Rivera in Mexico City is to this day the most amazing artwork I have had the pleasure to see- and I have visited the Vatican. Mexican artist Diego Rivera responded to this question when he painted The History of Mexico, as a series of murals that span three large walls within a grand stairwell of the National Palace in Mexico City. How do you mobilize a country of virtually enslaved people who can not read? You make an Artwork so they can learn the history in pictures. It is just so brilliant.
Twin Cities singer-songwriter and ACW member Dave Dvorak Creates Art in Memoriam to speak to the Murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti
See bio: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/acw-musicians-3/
Original Song by Music Coordinator Dave Dvorak “Made of Sunshine”
Dave Dvorak says, “After Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent, her wife wrote a beautiful tribute in which she described Renee as being ‘made of sunshine.’ I wrote this tune with that theme in mind. Rest in power, Renee.”
Music created by Dave for Alex Pretti Alex Got Something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo8NuIby8bc
Ted Greenbaum creates art: https://www.ftlo.biz/
Bob Marley (photo from One Love Peace Concert in Kingston Jamaica, 1978) Bob Marley is a cultural and musical icon for many reasons, but his art in the form of music made changes around the world. He was known for messages of love and peace, as well as messages of freedom, justice, and human rights. He also spread Reggae music worldwide.
ICE Out Now
By Janet Lenius
It’s been a loooong winter of ice
Of numerous kinds
Immigrants hunch in hiding places
À la Anne Frank
while
Neo-Nazi thugs rove
Terrify our streets
Spray tear gas clouds
On those who would speak out
Brave souls confront,
march and chant
ICE out now!!!
Cardboard signs held aloft
Phone cameras recording
To document and protest
Senseless sacrifice of
Alex Pretti, Renee Good
The unfairly incarcerated
Our next quest?
Constructing a new regime
A better tomorrow
On the ashes of our democracy.
― Janet Lenius
For more information, contact janet@jalenenterprises.com
Spring Around the Corner
By Janet Lenius
Spring is peeping
around the corner
melodic birdsong pierces morning air
Sidewalks reappear
Brown grass pokes through
Snow heaps sag to
Thin crusts, then transmute
Into puddles,
Rivulets run to the river
Sunbeam kisses your cheek
And you
Find yourself lingering
Savoring the moment
Dreaming of planting seeds
Strolling outside with a friend
Building a bonfire
Threads of hope sustain you
And you know in your bones that
Spring will finally come and
You will once again
Live easy.
― Janet Lenius
For more information, contact janet@jalenenterprises.com
ACW Member #1 (joined in 2017) has been consumed with 3-d printer whistle production for several months. She has really ramped it up after Bruce Springsteen mentioned the whistles in his song Streets of Minneapolis and Megan Kelly called for a ban on whistles. Imagine that!! ACW Member #1 reports she is currently organizing 120 printers across 46 states. As of March 1, they have printed 1,036,183 thousand whistles. Talk about Art Changing the World!!
Order FREE Whistles https://gofund.me/1cf576bde
Additionally, this article was also written about it! Read More
I began work on the painting shortly after the death of Renée Good; the project gained urgency on Jan. 24 when agents killed Alex Pretti. I read all I could about what happened and watched all the horrific videos. As a former long-time journalist, I felt was my duty to do the research before moving definitively forward. What I felt in the end was a primal age at the injustice and the tragedy not only of those deaths but the very idea of invading a city with what, as Springsteen said, amounted to a private army. I came away with deep admiration for the stand that citizens of your city took.
David D. Haynes
“Minneapolis in January”
Acrylic on canvas, 73 × 48 inches (2026)
In January 2026, federal agents acting on behalf of the American government, and its president, shot and killed two U.S. citizens on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Renée Good and Alex Pretti died exercising their rights of free speech and assembly.
After the killings, government officials defamed them as terrorists and lied about what happened; federal officials declined to cooperate with an investigation by the state of Minnesota.
“Minneapolis in January” exposes a moment when the federal government terrorized its own citizens as a political tool. The painting has no focal point, no rest for the eye; its expressive red palette suggests fury and chaos in the wake of the killings and yet the spare hints of teal also suggest hope.
Democracy can be weakened at such moments. Yet thousands of Minnesotans showed democracy can be strengthened when citizens stand united against immoral state power. This painting remembers the victims, even as the lies of a corrupt government encourage us to forget.
In mid-February, 2026, federal officials announced that the immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis (Operation Metro Surge) was ending. https://daviddhaynesart.org/
New Dance Group, New York Dating back to 1932, New Dance Group formed during the Great Depression, and also a dark time of oppression, social, and economic injustice. They offered classes, studio rentals, education and discussion on social issues. They were one of the first studios to allow African-Americans, and continued to be intercultural, interracial, and develop a diverse curriculum.
Brass Solidarity playing for ICE out MN https://pixies.et/AYzdp8sA
Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis” Listen
A unique example of how current artists are making impacts at economic revival and supporting each other. Read More
Painting by Fredericc Edwin Church, 1857 Part of the “Free Niagara Movement”; In the 1860’s Niagara Falls was heavily commercialized and privately owned companies would charge for any accessing or viewing. A number of writers, architects, assemblymen, and artists came together to produce public campaigns, artwork, and a demand for access to the falls for the public. In 1883, law was passed to create preservation measures for the falls and turn it into a state park that would be accessible to the public.
Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937); after a nazi bombing, Picasso painted his 25 foot depiction as an anti-war statement that was unveiled at the Worl’d Fair in Paris. His symbols of grief, rage, and resistance encouraged other artists to produce more anti-war art, rather than propaganda that supported the war efforts.
Guerrilla Art Action Group (1969) This group specialized in performative art, and this particular protest was in opposition to the Vietnam war, which was a key theme (anti-war), but they also wanted to make statements about the people in power or structure of art museums and how they were contributing to the ine quality of genders, race, and socioeconomic classes in the art world. In this instance, they went into the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with bags full of bull blood. They started wrestling until the bags broke and they were covered in blood on the floor. This public display gained them the attention of the museum curator, and led to a collaboration that allowed some of their anti-war art to be shown in the space.
If Graffiti Changed Anything It Would Be Illegal, Banksy 2011 Banksy is a prominent street artist known for various works with underlying messages of social justice, capitalism, and anti-war. Some of his work appears in heavy war torn places such as the West Bank and Ukraine, and are often seen as symbols of hope as well. This particular piece channeled the voice of women’s rights activist Emma Goldman who said “if voting ever changed anything it would be illegal”.
Illustration from Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
Stowe was an active abolitionist and in this novel, she wrote about Uncle Tom, a black slave and other characters with revolving/similar stories that exposed the horrors of slavery to readers in the United States. Inspiration for the novel came from several first hand accounts or biographies of escaped slaves, and in response to the “Fugitive Slave Act”. It was and still is recognized as a form of protest literature, and is even said to have potentially sparked the abolitionist movement at the time as well as laying the groundwork for the American Civil War.