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

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

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

By: Bill Cleveland
Listen for free

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
Can your art help dismantle injustice, shift systems, or spark healing in places like homeless shelters, emergency rooms, or city planning meetings? If you’re passionate about making a real difference through creativity, ART IS CHANGE (formerly known as Change the Story / Change the World) is your front-row seat to the real-world impact of art and social change. Hosted by author, musician, and researcher Bill Cleveland, each episode brings you deep into the lives and work of activist artists and cultural organizers who are doing more than dreaming—they’re transforming communities around the world. You’ll discover: • Proven strategies for thriving as an artist for change in complex, real-world settings • How to build meaningful, lasting partnerships that support your mission and your art • Lessons from global leaders creating cultural blueprints for justice, empathy, and resilience ▶️ Start with fan-favorite Episodes 86 and 87: Lessons From an Art and Change Pioneer—a double-dose of inspiration and practical insight.- https://change-the-story-chan.captivate.fm/episode/bighart-bigstory-redux/Copyright 2026 Bill Cleveland Art Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 200: A 2026 Election Call for Artists

    200: A 2026 Election Call for Artists
    21 Oct 2026
    CALL TO ARTISTS: Share your story: 3 minutes from the fieldAlready doing arts-based work to support free and fair elections, or about to? Record a message of about 3 minutes on your phone and answer three questions:Who are you? Your name, where you are, and what you do.What are you up to? How you are using your creative skills and strategies to support and protect free and fair elections.How come? Why you are doing this. If others can join you, tell us how.Record and send it HERE We'll weave as many voices as we can into upcoming episodes.One-stop election protection directory by stateEvery opportunity in one place: who, what, where, when, and how to reach them. Start with Anywhere in the U.S., then find your state. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 3, 2026. Entries are nonpartisan unless marked.For any Center for Artistic Activism project without its own link, write to Rachel Gita Karp, Rachel@c4aa.org — she connects volunteers to the local team.Anywhere in the U.S.Civic Culture Club (featured guest: Jiva Manske) — Artists and cultural workers as strategists for election protection, voter mobilization and civil resistance that lasts past Election Day. Host an Election Eve: Rebirth party tied to the organizers' live event in Brooklyn; build a crew with the Sustain the Movement! toolkit; join pre-election calls; share art organizers can use free (Create Joy). When: Election Eve, Nov 2; pre-election calls now. Contact: civiccultureclub.org/take-action (free toolkits, email sign-up); join: form.typeform.com/to/gm3AYc1RPower the Polls — Become a paid poll worker. Where: your county. When: apply now; most trainings close in October. Contact: powerthepolls.orgElection Protection (Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) — Nonpartisan poll monitor or hotline volunteer. Where: your home state only. When: early voting through Nov 3. Contact: 866ourvote.org/volunteer; lawyers epvol@lawyerscommittee.orgVoter hotlines to share — 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) · Spanish 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) · Asian languages 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683)Center for Artistic Activism — Free office hours to plan your own creative voter project. When: doubled through October. Contact: c4aa.org/office-hours, Rachel@c4aa.org, (646) 832-2454DJs at the Polls (founder Anton Moore) — Paid DJ sets at polling places. When: Nov 3. Contact: djsatthepolls.org/djsHeadCount — Register voters at concerts and festivals; see the show free. When: through Election Day. Contact: headcount.org/volunteerArt for Democracy (Lena Wolff & Hope Meng) — Free VOTE posters to print and post; never sold or altered. Contact: art-for-democracy.org/downloads; @lenawolffstudio, @hopemengdesignArtsVote (Americans for the Arts Action Fund) — Arts-sector voter campaign; toolkits and 501(c)(3) rules for arts organizations. Contact: artsvote.org, artsactionfund.org/artsvoteFall of Freedom (Dread Scott, Lynn Nottage, Hari Kunzru and others) — Network of artist-run anti-authoritarian events; 2026 weekend was Oct 2–4. Contact: falloffreedom.com, @falloffreedomResistance Revival Chorus — Guidance on starting your own protest chorus. Contact: resistancerevivalchorus.comFranciscan Action Network with Jewish Partnership for Democracy — Poll chaplains trained in de-escalation. Contact: America Magazine reportPostcards to Swing States (partisan, Democratic) — Write GOTV postcards from home. Contact: turnoutpac.org/postcardsA list of Your own deadlines: vote411.orgBy StateArizonaStop the Vote — Yana Landowne's satirical troupe Trillionaires for Trump stages mock campaigns to spur turnout. Where: AZ (also CA, NY, WA). When: through Nov 3. Contact: trillionairesfortrump.orgCounty poll workers — Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties are hiring. Contact: Power the Polls or your county elections office (guide)CaliforniaDEMOCRATIC SPACE — Polly García (Cosmovision LLC): alien-defector puppets register voters and offer mutual aid. Where: Lake Merritt, Oakland. When: through Nov 3. Contact: Rachel@c4aa.org(N)ICE Officers Deployed at Polling Stations — Kristina Wong with director Jenessa Joffe: satirical video and public filming to counter ICE-related voter fear. Where: Koreatown, Los Angeles. Contact: Rachel@c4aa.orgYOU'RE WELCOME — L.M. Bogad: "oligarchs" take to streets and seas on California's ballot measures. Where: statewide, details to come. Contact: Rachel@c4aa.orgStop the Vote — Trillionaires for Trump. Contact: trillionairesfortrump.orgArt for Democracy — Bay Area home base of the free-poster project. Contact: art-for-democracy.orgArtists 4 Democracy — LA artists and art educators: campus workshops, art sales, postcard parties, registration drives. Where: Los Angeles, California campuses, swing states. Contact: artists4democracy.com, @a4d_artistsfordemocracyCalifornia for the Arts — Create the Vote — Free 2026 Election Engagement Resource Guide. Contact: caforthearts.orgSan Diego County poll workers — Two-day training; up to 11 ...
    Show more Show less
    32 min
  • The Censor Upstream: Who Decides What Art Gets Shared?

    The Censor Upstream: Who Decides What Art Gets Shared?
    14 Oct 2026
    Who decides There are lots of ways to censor an artist. You can ban the book, close the exhibition, cancel the performance. We know what those look like. But there's another way: you can make the artist wonder. Wonder whether a character will cost the theater a grant. Whether a festival celebrating queer artists is still fundable. Whether a nonbinary actor can play Faust.In this Freedom of Expression Weather Report, we follow a few sentences inserted into the federal arts funding system. We start with the three theaters and the national service organization that took the National Endowment for the Arts to court, and Judge William E. Smith's ruling that the NEA's "gender ideology" policy put an unconstitutional thumb on the scale. Then we listen in on the October 2026 arguments before the First Circuit. And we track how anti-DEI certifications and canceled grants have traveled downstream, from Providence to Boston, from New York to Gallup, New Mexico, where some arts groups signed, some refused, and neighbors passed the hat.If you've ever filled out a grant application and caught yourself editing the art to fit the form, this one's for you.Key ideas:The censor has moved upstream. Censorship doesn't need to storm the theater. It can show up as a checkbox, a vague criterion, or a question that makes artists cut the work before it's written.Negative weight is still a weight. The government doesn't have to ban an idea to suppress it. It only has to make that viewpoint count against you when the money is handed out.Follow the pipes. NEA dollars flow through state, regional, and local agencies, and the conditions attached to them flow along too, reaching organizations that never applied to Washington at all.Listen, then share it with someone who funds, makes, or cares about the art in your community.Notable MentionsPeopleMarta V. Martínez: Executive director of Rhode Island Latino Arts, oral historian, and lead plaintiff's voice in the NEA case.Lynette Labinger: Providence civil rights attorney and ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating counsel in Rhode Island Latino Arts v. NEA.Luis Hernández: Morning host at The Public's Radio in Rhode Island, who interviewed Martínez and Labinger.Judge William E. Smith: Senior U.S. District Judge in Rhode Island who ruled the NEA's "gender ideology" policy unconstitutional in September 2025.Donald J. Trump: President of the United States, whose January 2025 executive orders set the policies at the center of this story.Mary Anne Carter: Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, who also led the agency during Trump's first term.Andres Serrano: Photographer whose 1987 Piss Christ became a flashpoint in the culture-war fights over NEA funding.Robert Mapplethorpe: Photographer whose NEA-supported retrospective The Perfect Moment sparked national controversy in 1989.The NEA Four: Performance artists Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller, whose vetoed grants in 1990 led to a landmark lawsuit.Rose Eason: Executive director of gallupARTS in Gallup, New Mexico, which declined NEA-derived funding rather than sign the anti-DEI assurance.April Chalay: Deputy director of 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, who signed the assurance and kept doing the work.Matthew Chase-Daniel: Artist and co-founder of Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe's mobile art gallery.Erin Harkey: President and CEO of Americans for the Arts.Nina Ozlu Tunceli: Recently departed Executive director of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and the field's longtime voice on Capitol Hill.Organizations & InstitutionsCenter for the Study of Art and Community: Producer of Art is Change, building art-and-community partnerships since 1992.Charles F. Kettering Foundation: Democracy and the Arts: Foundation program exploring how the arts strengthen democratic life, and partner on the Art in Action series.National Endowment for the Arts: The independent federal agency created by Congress in 1965 to support artistic activity and broaden access to the arts.Rhode Island Latino Arts: Providence nonprofit supporting Latino visual art, music, and theater, and lead plaintiff in the NEA case.The Theater Offensive: Boston company creating theater by and for queer and trans people of color.National Queer Theater: New York company celebrating LGBTQ+ theater artists, and home of the Criminal Queerness Festival.Theatre Communications Group: The national service organization for the nonprofit theater field, and a plaintiff in the case.ACLU of Rhode Island: Brought the suit with the national ACLU and cooperating counsel. The case page has filings and updates.The Public's Radio: Rhode Island's public radio newsroom.U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit: Federal appeals court that heard the NEA's appeal on October 7, 2026.New Mexico Arts: New Mexico's state arts agency, which passes NEA partnership funds on to local organizations.KUNM: Public radio in Albuquerque, whose April 2026 report documented New Mexico groups forgoing NEA ...
    Show more Show less
    40 min
  • 198: Mark Kendall Thinks A Good Joke Can Help Us Change Our Communities.

    198: Mark Kendall Thinks A Good Joke Can Help Us Change Our Communities.
    7 Oct 2026
    What's So Funny?This episode's guest is Mark Kendall — comedian, filmmaker, and co-founder, alongside Bill Worley, of the Atlanta production company Cool Cool Cool Productions. Mark's path into comedy started almost by accident: a college kid at Northwestern who just wanted to hold a camera, until a summer program built by Chris Rock dropped him into the writers' rooms of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — and he pitched a joke that Stephen Colbert said on air that night.What he brought home from that summer wasn't just a love of the craft. It was an understanding of how comedy actually works: that behind every laugh is a choice about how much tension to raise, and how much to let go. Mark has spent the years since putting that awareness to civic use — using comedy to talk Atlanta audiences into caring about affordable housing, gerrymandering, and public transit, one absurd, hyper-specific bit at a time.Listen in as we explore:Why Comedy isn't decoration on top of a serious messageThe simple but fragile secret behind every effective jokeHow a comedian's own values are what separates "jokes for jokes' sake" from comedy that moves people.Notable MentionsPeopleMark Kendall — Atlanta-based comedian, filmmaker, and educator; co-founder of Cool Cool Cool Productions and this episode's guest.Bill Worley — Co-founder, COO, and producer/director at Cool Cool Cool Productions alongside Mark Kendall.Chris Rock — Comedian who helped create the Comedy Central summer program that brought young writers of color, including Mark, into the network's development pipeline.Jon Stewart — Longtime host of The Daily Show, where Mark spent a week shadowing the writers' room as a college student.Stephen Colbert — Host of The Colbert Report; aired a joke Mark pitched as a young writer during his Comedy Central summer program.Dr. Lonnie Johnson — Atlanta-based inventor and former NASA engineer best known for creating the Super Soaker; featured in Mark's comedic "Black Sustainability History" video series for PBS's Independent Lens, where he discussed a new heat-to-electricity engine he's developing.Organizations & InstitutionsCool Cool Cool Productions — Atlanta production company co-founded by Mark Kendall and Bill Worley, making comedic and non-fiction content on civic engagement, public health, and community issues.Northwestern University — Where Mark studied film and first got involved in sketch comedy, located near Chicago's improv scene.Atlanta Regional Commission — Regional planning agency covering metro Atlanta housing, transportation, and land use; current partner on a comedy-based community engagement fellowship with Mark focused on affordable housing.Fair Count — Atlanta-based civic engagement nonprofit (founded by Stacey Abrams) focused on census participation and fair redistricting; collaborated with Mark on a comedic Bob Ross-style video about Georgia's redistricting process.MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) — Atlanta's public transit system, the subject of a comedic sketch by Mark exploring NIMBY fears around transit expansion into Cobb County.Open Buffalo — Buffalo, New York-based organization focused on economic, racial, and ecological justice; collaborated with Cool Cool Cool Productions on video content.PBS's Independent Lens — PBS documentary strand for which Mark created short-form comedic content, including the "Black Sustainability History" series featuring Dr. Lonnie Johnson.Shows, Series & ProductionsThe Daily Show with Jon Stewart — Comedy Central news-satire program where Mark shadowed the writers' room during his college summer program.The Colbert Report — Comedy Central satirical news program hosted by Stephen Colbert, where Mark pitched material as a young writer, including a joke that made it to air.The Magic Negro and Other Blackness — Mark's nationally touring solo sketch comedy show examining the depiction of Black men in media and the comedic tools used to unpack harmful stereotypes.Historical & Cultural ContextMuscogee (Creek) Nation — Indigenous nation whose ancestral lands include present-day Atlanta, acknowledged by Mark at the top of the conversation.*******Art Is CHANGE is a podcast that chronicles the power of art and community transformation, providing a platform for activist artists to share their experiences and gain the skills and strategies they need to thrive as agents of social change.Through compelling conversations with artist activists, artivists, and cultural organizers, the podcast explores how art and activism intersect to fuel cultural transformation and drive meaningful change. Guests discuss the challenges and triumphs of community arts, socially engaged art, and creative placemaking, offering insights into artist mentorship, building credibility, and communicating impact.Episodes delve into the realities of artist isolation, burnout, and funding for artists, while celebrating the role of artists in residence ...
    Show more Show less
    41 min
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet