ART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers

What if a Musical Could Help us Tell the Truth About Climate Change? In this episode, Bill Cleveland sits down with theater director Emily Hartford and composer–storyteller Ned Hardford to explore Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs —a nine-episode musical audio drama that reimagines an ancient Greek myth as a near-future climate story. What starts as a conversation about craft opens into deepe...

BIGhART is Australia's leading arts & social change organization. Making art, Building communities, Driving change. 30 years in operation, 62 communities engaged, 47 awards won, 550 artists contributed, 9, 500 people participated, 2. 6 million audience members. Can a skateboard ramp in the rainforest spark a global movement for justice, creativity, and environmental protection? In Part Two of...

Adios Leni This isn’t a regular ART IS CHANGE episode. It’s a pause. A moment to mark the passing of Leni Sloan—artist, activist, catalytic troublemaker, and beloved friend. In this special reflection, Bill Cleveland shares stories that trace Leni’s life across stages and communities—from a daring Bicentennial musical about minstrelsy, to decades of cultural work uncovering erased Black histories,...

When I describe BIGhART to folks in the U.S. they accuse me of making it up. What if telling a story could rewrite history, heal generational trauma, and reclaim a community’s stolen legacy? In a world where the voices of marginalized communities are often silenced or distorted, this episode explores how the arts—through projects like BIGhART and the Ngapartji Ngapartji and Namatjira initiatives—c...

Why does sustainability matter in activist art? When funding cycles are short, residencies are brief, and institutions often treat creative work as temporary or expendable, what does it mean to commit to change that lasts? In this episode of Art Is Change, the sixth in our series on the building blocks of effective community arts practice, Bill Cleveland sits down with two legendary cultural leade...

This episode digs into one of the trickiest—and most revealing—corners of community-based arts work: the way humility and failure shape everything we do, from a 12-line role in Richard II to a city-wide public-art firestorm. Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon and Bill Cleveland tumble into stories that peel back the glossy surface of “successful” arts practice: the actor with decades of experience...

Budgets frozen. Institutions wobbling. Political earthquakes everywhere. In the middle of all that, many artists and cultural workers are stepping straight into the messy moral world of community change. This episode is the fourth in our special series where we're unpacking the building blocks of effective art and social change practice, This episode we explore:  What happens when “good inten...

Robert Farid Karimi The "inbetween" is often ignored. It is also the juicy territory that this week’s guest, comedian, chef, poet, educator, and activist Robert Farid Karimi has been investigating over the last couple of decades. like many of our guests Robert, who is also known as Mero Cocinero, Farid Mercury, the Peoples Chef , and even in some quarters, Betty Crocker's radical heir apparent, is...

What if the scariest threat we face isn’t some monster outside—but the quiet, invisible loss of our own power to act? In a world wired to exploit our fear, reclaiming our agency has never been more urgent—or more human. This episode dives deep into how fear hijacks our brains, and how imagination and creativity can reconnect us to each other and to our own capacity for action. If you’re feeling ov...

What if the solution to our democracy’s crisis isn’t another white paper or study—but an artist running for office? In this episode, civic organizer and “public defender” Tom Tresser reveals why he feels America’s nonprofit and creative sectors are missing in action when it comes to power, policy, and public trust. As arts funding shrinks and disinformation grows, Tom challenges creatives to stop...

What happens when a tiny city-state with tight state control becomes a hub for community-driven, arts-based transformation? Meet ArtsWok , a Singapore-based organization helping people talk about the hardest things—grief, inequality, identity, and even death—with art as the medium and hope as the mission In a place known more for order than outspokenness, how do artists create room for deep conver...

DAH SAYS: "In today’s world, we can oppose destruction and violence with the creation of meaning " The Economist Magazine's Intelligence Unit places, Serbia, and Singapore, among the 46 countries that are considered Flawed Democracies along with United States of America.  As our three countries grow more alike in surprising ways, it felt like the right moment to revisit two powerful episodes...

When everything feels like it’s unraveling, how do we know art still matters? In this episode, we explore the question: What use is art in a world on fire? Across movements, across generations—from Ella Baker’s quiet revolution to Beckett’s unexpected presence in a prison theater—this episode offers three simple, potent reminders of how art works in times of chaos: to notice, to connect, and to re...

Can a Quilt Change how Congress Listens— & How you Practice Democracy at Home? If you’re exhausted by performative politics and digital outrage, this episode offers a deeply grounded alternative. Discover how everyday acts of creation and conversation can rebuild civic trust—and how women across America are using quilting to stitch together a more ethical and inclusive democracy, one square at...

What Threats are There to Activist Artists and Cultural Organizers & What Can You Do About Them? Today on our weather report, we're wading into stormy waters, namely threats to activist artists and arts organizations coming not from creeps and trolls on the Internet, but from our own government. So this week we're focusing on what's happening to creative change agents out there and on what mig...

What if your art could both heal your community & pay your bills?  If you’re a musician or creative itching to drive real-world change without sacrificing your livelihood, this episode maps a path: how Music to Life evolved from a songwriting contest into a rigorous accelerator that helps artists design, fund, and measure community projects—so you can make change while making a living.&nb...

What if the solution to the climate crisis and the key to democratic renewal were powered by the same thing? In this episode of Art is Change, we'll explore Bill McKiibben new book, Here Comes the Sun, and draw a powerful parallel between the emerging solar energy story and narrative of as a force for democracy and social change. What if stories could be fuel just like solar energy? What if the na...

What if art could open the door to a new life after prison? What if creative work wasn't just healing, but a literal job offer? In a time when reentry programs are scarce and trust is hard to rebuild, this episode, the second of our two part series on the work of California Lawyers for the Arts, introduces Designing Creative Futures, a groundbreaking initiative that uses the power of the arts to h...

In this episode, we sit down with Alma Robinson, the longtime executive director of California Lawyers for the Arts. From cultural repatriation to youth advocacy to resurrecting a legendary prison arts program, Alma has been at the heart of a quiet revolution, mobilizing artists and legal advocates to shape a more just creative society. In it we'll hear how Alma's early work on cultural restoratio...

What happens when a president tries to get the WOKE out of museums? In this episode of ART IS CHANGE we follow the latest political attacks on the Smithsonian and other cultural institutions and explore how activist artists and institutions around the country are turning up the volume in response. From DC Block parties powered by Go Go beats to high stakes opera in Detroit, artists and cultural le...

What can a story of the building of a community bridge teach us today as we struggle to find common ground? The answer, of course, is more than you can imagine, and then some. And in this episode of Art is Change, we'll hear the story of just one of the many, many examples we can learn from. Now, in this episode You'll hear How one bold question sparked a mural project, reflecting a flood of voice...

What does it take for a community of activist artists & cultural organizers to become a real force for resistance & change? And doing that, how do we create communities that can hold both joy and grief and stay resilient in these weird hard times and still fight for justice together? This is Artist Change, a chronicle of art and social change, where activist artists and cultural organizers...

If you’re a cultural worker navigating the messy, magical middle ground of art and activism, who’s taking care of you ? Now, if you’ve been with us over the last two episodes, you’ll know we’ve been tackling what we call the building blocks of effective community arts practice —those foundational elements that help artists not just make meaningful work, but do so in ways that are ethical, sustaina...

Can an artist lead a community? What does it take for cultural activists to become trusted stewards of change in divisive times? In a world grappling with polarization and rising authoritarianism, the need for compassionate, imaginative leadership has never been more urgent. This episode dives into how artists and cultural workers already operating in community spaces can embrace roles as civic le...

To whom or what are artists and cultural organizers truly accountable—and why does it matter? In an age where creative work increasingly intersects with social change, understanding accountability is crucial for artists striving to make a civic impact. Whether you’re creating in your own community or stepping into unfamiliar territory, this episode explores the moral and practical anchors that def...