Book Review: Art Works & the significance of artists, organizers, and movements throughout history
Gary Steuer
The connection between the arts and social change - how the arts and artists can influence movements - is being increasingly recognized as both powerful and important. Recent tragedies, the murder of George Floyd and, before that, protests in Ferguson following the shooting of Michael Brown, found artists deeply engaged in artistic responses to the moment, and those artists provided a galvanizing spark to the movement.
While we often see artists at the forefront, now, this phenomenon is not new; it has long roots and a rich history. Some of that history is relatively well known, even iconic – like Marian Anderson singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech. But much of it was either never widely known, or if known in its time, has since been shrouded in collective amnesia.
Ken Grossinger, with deep experience in both social justice movements and arts and culture, has done us a great service by writing the first ever (to my knowledge) sweeping history of how artists and organizers have worked together to advance an array of social movements.
Art Works – How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together does have a specific time and geography lens, which is really the United States over roughly the past 50-60 years, looking at the Civil Rights movement, Anti-war movement, AIDS and the Gay rights movement, Disability rights, and leading up to the current upheavals triggered by George Floyd, Ferguson, and other current social change, anti-racism and equity work. There is a bit of earlier context from the 20th century, like noting Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit” of 1939, a powerful song protesting lynching. Even as someone who considers himself relatively well-versed in this history, I was struck by how often compelling examples of the arts being employed in social justice work were described that I had been totally unaware of.
Grossinger opens the book with moving first-person accounts of the power of “We Shall Overcome” in the civil rights movement and the great Bernice Johnson Reagon (of Sweet Honey in the Rock) talking about her realization that she and many other musical artists of that era saw themselves as both cultural artists AND organizers. There are stories of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), El Teatro Campesino, and the United Farmworkers of Cesar Chavez.
Familiar names like Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Nina Simone, and Harry Belafonte (I will come back to Belafonte in a bit) feature prominently, but so do many others who never became household names, however important they were as artists in social movements. This is where I think the book especially excels.
I did not know that two early staffers of SNCC were actually an artist and a poet who helped create the black panther image used in the Alabama civil rights movement in 1966. Another early SNCC employee, Danny Lyon, was a photographer, and photographic documentation of the movement was a critical component of publicizing and humanizing what was happening in the civil rights movement. Lyon was able to capture, through a barred window, a photograph of 33 African American teenage girls held in jail for 45 days without charges and get it to Jet magazine for publication, which reached US Attorney Robert Kennedy and led to their ultimate release.
The book becomes a sort of greatest hits of artists in social justice movements, in a good way, reminding us of the history that today’s artists are building an extraordinary legacy upon. There is Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Gil Scott-Heron. And then there are the many artists responding to Trayvon Martin a generation later: Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Lady Gaga.
There is the story of Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay as an example of localized environmental activism to protect a largely Indigenous community from the devastation of a planned open-pit mine. While driven by musicians without great name recognition, the cause was eventually taken up by Tom Chapin and Pete Seeger. And, a musical festival created to raise awareness eventually attracted performers like Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, Lucinda Williams, and Brandi Carlile. But the point is that the work did not begin with famous artists. It began with a local community, local artists, fighting for their rights, their environment, and their culture.
Grossinger covers the work of Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. and the Hip Hop Caucus, who I have had the gift of hearing speak about his work focusing on climate justice and the disproportionate impact of climate change on communities of color. This is an example of a perhaps somewhat less well-known use of art – in this case hip hop music and culture – in service of the environmental movement (particularly notable as the environmental movement has been so White-dominated).
Popular film makes an appearance too, such as China Syndrome and 9 to 5, the latter of which sparked a formal related movement focused on the challenges faced by working women. And being personally based in Colorado, I noted the inclusion of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Chasing Ice, which highlights the work of Boulder-based photographer James Balog capturing the impact of climate change on melting glaciers.
There are examples of artists working to bring attention to the plight of immigrants in ICE detention facilities, through programs that use poetry and literature to bring awareness to this issue. The work of Chicana muralist Judith Baca and French photographer JR. A section of the book also digs into the conflicted territory of how museums are responding to social movements, sometimes leading and sometimes being dragged. The Equal Justice Initiative’s powerful National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL is cited, along with many other arts-based responses around the terrors of slavery, racism, and lynching throughout the country.
If there is one social movement where the book is perhaps lacking in depth, it would the Gay Rights/AIDS movement. No mention of playwright Larry Kramer and his work, Tony Kushner and Angels in America, just to name a couple of examples. Perhaps we can look forward to that in the next edition…
Grossinger concludes his work with an exploration of examples of how philanthropy is supporting this work, which is a very important component, especially for funders who may be reading the book. And circling back to the first chapter, I appreciated the homage paid to the seminal work of Harry Belafonte (who is featured in a jacket blurb), and the efforts of his daughter Gina carrying on his work, especially poignant given his passing in 2023 (and his glaring omission from a proper tribute in the recent Grammy “In Memorium” segment). I grew up as a neighbor of Belafonte (“Mr. B” as everyone called him) and spent a lot of time with him and his family. He was an inspiration to me, as Paul Robeson had been to him (perhaps another small quibble – Robeson deserve a mention…), and I believe Mr. B would have been very pleased with this book. That is very high praise, if you knew Mr. B.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Gary Steuer is Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s President and CEO. He has over thirty years of experience in the arts, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. He previously headed the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy, where he served as Chief Cultural Officer, advising the Mayor on cultural and creative economy issues. His accomplishments included creating the City’s first arts and creative industry-targeted Community Development Block Grant capital funding initiative, completing the first study of Philadelphia’s Creative Vitality, and initiating Culture Blocks, a new arts and creative economy data mapping project. He also oversaw the City’s public art program, which is the oldest and one of the most extensive in the nation. Mr. Steuer also served as the Vice President for Private-Sector Affairs and Executive Director of the Arts and Business Council at Americans for the Arts. He served for ten years as the President/CEO of the Arts & Business Council Inc. prior to its merger with Americans for the Arts. He has written, lectured, and taught extensively on arts management, philanthropy, and policy issues and has served on many boards of directors and funding and advisory panels for local, statewide, and national organizations.
Ken Grossinger has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions and community organizations, and as director of Impact Philanthropy in Democracy Partners. Among other cultural projects, his executive producing and producing credits include the award-winning Netflix documentaries Social Dilemma (2020) and Bleeding Edge, (2018) and the films Borderland: The Line Within (2024), Suppressed (2022), Boycott (2021), and Won't You Be My Neighbor (2018). He lives in Washington, DC. and Telluride, Colorado. You can follow Ken on Twitter/X @artworksbook.com, on the web at www.artworksbook.com, and listen to the Art Works Spotify Playlist while reading!
