Applied Arts for Social Justice

This course is ideal for students who are passionate about social justice and are interested in how artistic platforms are used to raise awareness and fight injustice. Creative projects offer unique opportunities for exploring conflict and justice and sometimes can serve as catalysts for cultural and political change. But how exactly do these activities make space for change? What societal underpinnings are necessary to sustain the change that these works seek to create? As a student enrolled in this program, you will engage with an array of artists and practitioners who are experts in their fields, providing opportunities to ask questions and become familiar with how art practices impact the world around you. Through case studies and guest speakers, this course will explore the work of the Philadelphia-based Mural Arts Project; the work of Afghanistan Human Rights Democracy Organization; the New York-based Bond Street Theatre in Afghanistan; the storytelling and applied theatre-based project, We’re Here Now in the Rio Grande Valley, and the hip hop dance movements in Ghana and South Africa. You’ll gain an understanding of how and when practitioners use arts-based practices to effect social and political change, acquire knowledge of how the arts can serve marginalized and oppressed populations, and learn how creative and socially minded work can become a career.