Activist art

Activist art is a term describing art grounded in the act of doing and raising political or social issues. Unlike works meant to be contemplated in a gallery, activist art seeks to intervene directly in social processes, to draw attention to injustice, to mobilise communities and to prompt change. It often moves beyond the museum into the streets, public space and the digital environment. The roots of the tendency reach back to the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century and the political art of the 1930s, but as a distinct practice it took shape from the 1960s and 1970s, in the context of the civil rights struggle, the feminist movement and anti-war protest. Activist artists and collectives use posters, performance, street art, installation and media campaigns; well-known examples include the Guerrilla Girls collective, which combats gender and racial inequality in the art world. Activist art is closely linked with socially engaged practice and blurs the boundary between artistic creation and civic action, emphasising art's function as an instrument of social transformation.