How does art change YOUR world? Participant Survey
Art to Change the World / University of Minnesota OLLI This is OLLI https://ccaps.umn.edu/olli
Art to Change the World (ACW) is an international non-profit, diverse coalition of artists, educators, scientists, topic experts, and other change makers who join forces in service of positive social change. We employ the arts, education, audience engagement, and organizational partnerships to invoke positive discussion, reflection, and action.
Your authentic experience will include interactive discussions on the topic “How does Art Change YOUR world ? “with ACW artists and leaders.
Testimonial from Jill Stebbins
These 5 ACW Zooms for OLLI have been outstanding and have hit on 5 different levels of art for social change.
The first showed an example of how to set up a home and studio conducive to creativity.
The second was hands on, and showed that all can enjoy the playfulness and stress-relieving nature of art, as we made polymer clay creatures as a “Zoom-group”.
In the third class we learned about the process of making a film, and viewed the recent film about Historical Trauma in the Native American population. We interviewed the filmmaker himself.
In the next, a local newspaper editor spoke about social justice through the written word. After all, a word after a word, after a word is power.
The fifth session took the conversation to the level of community organizing with a goal of implementing social justice.
Testimonial from Aviva:
Thanks for a really stimulating and interesting class. I loved the variety of presenters as well as the depth of their passion and commitment. Lots of good discussion and exposure to expanding ways of thinking about art, even as a verb. Each presenter gave me lots of food for thought and they were all certainly good at what they do.I’m glad I took this course Aviva
Oct 7 Barbara Bridges: Re-purpose, Re-cycle, Create. Reduce your carbon footprint using art. A tour of Barbara’s property and studios showing dozens of creative solutions. Read More about the class
Testimony: I’d be a wealthy woman if I had $1 for each time I said, “I am not artistic” throughout my 66 years. After virtually doing session one of How Does Art Change Your World?, a light-bulb moment! My passion for seeing, touching, and learning about artistic pursuits is a symbiotic connection with the passion of artists. We all can apply our imagination and experience to solving challenges, and that’s creativity! Sherri Weiss
See Barbara’s Session
Oct 14 Layl McDill: World of Wonderment. The emotional benefits of embracing your childlike wonder in art making. Read More about the class
Oct 21 Bob Trench: The Power of Film to change the world. Watch the video BEFORE the class Read More About the Class
Testimony: Robert’s story of how he went about making the film Dodging Bullets was very interesting and educational. It was more involved than I thought it would be. The discussion on historical trauma was enlightening for me. Denise Marlowe
October 28 Margo Ashmore: The Power of the Pen. Is it Art? Publisher and journalist of the Northeaster shares the power and art of the written word. Read More more about the class
Nov 4 David O’Fallon: Creating Networks of Action and Hope. David discusses organizing strategies he has used over the past decades.
This class will explore emerging actions and networks of resilience and hope, in response to these times. Local and national examples will be shown–and questions raised about what “culture” and “art” are–who decides what is to be valid, whose voices are heard or shoved aside. What do we expect and need now form the arts and cultural work, organizations, institutions?
In these times, national networks of artists and cultural workers have formed. Work in hyper-local and regional and national networks is underway—the goal is to imagine and build a cultural democracy, not just to make high cultural more accessible or “to democratize” culture. The USDAC following is an introduction to some of this work.
Also of interest: https://vimeo.com/468791802