“If Bogad is interested in helping “social movements express themselves and make interventions,” do you think that we can get someone from Make the Road and/or NICE to this event – i.e. giving people involved in community activism access to these tools?” -Feb 17 email message from Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art, to Maureen Connor, chair of the Queens College Master of Fine Arts program
First, some background: As part of an initiative called Corona Studio, the Queens Museum of Art and Queens College have embarked on a two-year journey to develop a Masters of Fine Art in Social Practice. Social practice refers to the type of art practiced by artists that work with people and within communities, addressing social needs in creative ways. You can find a dozen other (surely more eloquent) definitions. But here’s how I like to think about it: social art is responding to the same forces that social entrepreneurs (or even social economists) are responding to: an increasingly interconnected world that is demanding creativity and innovations that have to do with the greater good.
On February 22nd, Larry Bogad, a political performance artist and professor at UC Davis, visited the Queens College campus to lead a workshop on ‘Tactical Performance’. Aside from QC art students, it seemed like a good idea to invite people from community organizations that might find it relevant for their social justice work. After all, the workshop’s goal according to Larry was to introduce students to “performance skills that can be added to the tactical toolkit of social movements and creative disturbance to make what we do more effective.” So I reached out to Make the Road NY and New Immigrant Community Empowerment, two neighboring organizations that have opened their arms to me since I took the role of Community Organizer and Corona Studio Coordinator for QMA.
Two brave souls representing MRNY, including Education Organizer Alejandra Ruiz, showed up to the workshop. There was a really interesting moment when Larry talked about his involvement with the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, which organized an action at the G8 Summit in 2005. The image above became widely circulated and was a perfect example for him of the power of tactical performance to create media that spreads the movement’s message in fun and subversive ways.
After the workshop Alejandra and I started planting the seeds of a possible collaboration involving commissioning photographers (and possibly performance artists) to create powerful images that can help her with her most pressing issue: the fact Corona has the most overcrowded school in the City and it’s time for change.
with gratitude,
Jose Serrano-McClain
Great story. You guys should do more stuff in Jamaica.