Use of Art in Promoting Social Justice

Introduction 

Use of art as a tool for promoting social justice is gaining a lot of significance in our contemporary society. This is important in society as a whole because art as activism is bale to portray words that cannot be said. It allows artists to address social issues affecting people such as environmental concerns, human rights violations, cultural diversity issues, and escalation of violence among others (Sloboda, 2015). Therefore, a powerful artwork enable the public to reflect on social issues and promote change. 

Artists Using Art to Achieve Social Justice 

Sara Z.E. Hughes is a cultural worker, artists, and filmmaker, who uses art to pursue social change in society. Sara feels it is important to create art for social justice causes because it helps to change the way people perceive social issues, affecting our society. Sara uses art to create a difference in others who find themselves in social unjust circumstances. She is committed towards promoting racial and economic justice through social change movements. She states that “ For me, the role of artists in social change movements is not to just provide visuals for activists’ communication strategies and immediate needs, but rather to develop a “ cultural strategy”  to help shift the way people think about the world” ( Hughes, 2015) . Other people have reacted positively towards Sara’s work of using art as activism. They feel that it explores the grey areas that are interesting and complex to them. Also, they feel that it promotes hope and resilience of those in society who find themselves in social unjust situations. Personally, I think Sara’s use of art in social justice is a superb move because her work represents the social issues affecting the people and thus is able to shift the thinking of situations or people. 

Another artist who uses art as a social justice movement incudes Favianna Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a visual artist who addresses social justice issues through poster prints. Examples of the social justice issues she addresses includes reproductive justice, war, immigration, culture among others. The artist has used art to make a difference in the lives of immigrants who are affected by the social injustice. One of her artwork known as monarch butterflies, contains a statement “migration of beautiful.” She presents her work in protests, vigils, and press conferences countrywide to advocate for the rights of immigrants. She states that “I don’t believe in our lifetime we are going to see open borders. However, I think it’s an important idea to push out, because art sometimes is about imagining what could be, it’s about allowing people to think really big” (Hughes, 2015). Others believe her work is iconic especially in promoting social justice for immigrants. Her work helps to change their perception towards immigrants who are associate with negative concepts. Personally, I believe her work plays a crucial part in the lives of people and immigrants. She focuses on promoting positive perception towards immigrants by using positive symbols in her artwork. Therefore, her work is important in our current society by raising awareness on various aspects of social life and issues that contributes significantly towards promoting social justice. 

Conclusion 

Art as an activism tool contains a wide range of performing, printed, written, and visual art. Various artists are increasingly using art to pursue social justice in our society. For instance, the artwork is used to encourage individuals to pursue social change, to build the community, and to raise critical awareness. Artists such as Favianna Rodriguez and Sara Hughes feel that art is the way to address social issues and helping those who find themselves trapped in social unjust circumstances. Therefore, use of art in promoting social justice is important in our society because it provides individuals with the understanding of the dangers of social injustices and how they change the oppressive systemic patterns to build a better society. 

References 

Hughes, S. (2015). Art and social change: Five artists with a cultural strategy for change Retrieved from: https://www.afsc.org/friends/art-and-social-change-five-artists-cultural-strategy-change . 

Sloboda, J. (2015). Can music teaching be a powerful tool for social justice? In  The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education .