Episode Details

What use is art making

when freedom is under fire?

From the Center for the Study of Art and Community? This is Art is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activist artists and cultural organizers share the strategies and skills they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland

This episode is part of a special Art In Action series we're producing in partnership with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation Democracy and the Arts program. In these episodes, we'll be speaking with artists, cultural organizers and arts leaders who are navigating and challenging current efforts to to limit free creative expression and free speech.

Together, we'll explore what freedom of expression means in practice, not as an abstract right, but as a lived responsibility at the heart of democratic life.

This show features my conversation with painter, organizer, educator and “root waterer” Jordan Seaberry,about what happens when art moves beyond decoration and entertainment and becomes a powerful civic practice for listening, organizing and building people power. Jordan's work, which spans painting, policy, comics, teaching and movement building, is all grounded in the conviction that human creativity is not extra.

Along the way, we follow Jordan's journey from the south side of Chicago to the Rhode Island School of Design, otherwise known as RISD, to Oregon organizing around prisoners rights, studying at Roger Williams University School of Law, and helping lead the US Department of Art and Culture.

In it we will learn about:

* How Jordan's life as a painter and organizer came together from RISD disillusionment to grassroots organizing, law school teaching and cultural strategy.

* Why listening is central to both art art and organizing. Whether the canvas becomes an ear or an organizer helps someone rehear their own life with dignity

* How artists can generate real civic power by joining movements, helping build alternative systems, and challenging dominant institutions from both inside and the street.

Notable Mentions

People

Jordan Seaberry — Painter, organizer, educator, and co-director at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, whose practice bridges painting, policy, comics, and movement work.

Adam Horowitz — Founding leader in the creation of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture’s people-powered national framework.

Arlene Goldbard — Writer, speaker, and longtime cultural activist who helped shape USDAC’s founding vision.

Gabriel Baez — Cultural organizer and early USDAC leader involved in its national development.

Jonathan Highfield — RISD faculty member and an important mentor in Jordan’s political and intellectual formation.

Carlton Turner — Artist, organizer, and co-founder of Sipp Culture, building rural cultural infrastructure in Mississippi.

Brandi Turner — Co-director of Sipp Culture and key partner in its community-rooted cultural work.

Dan Denvir — Host of The Dig, the podcast Jordan names as a use