The Place of Artistic Activism in the Digital Age: Perspectives from Black Lives Matter Street Artists
Abstract
During times of social distancing and civil unrest, artists, alongside protesters, took to city streets to engage in racial justice activism, and a global trend of public art for Black Lives Matter flooded urban communities and internet spaces. With artists assuming a role of activist leadership, how do they understand their own role in the movement and in creating social change? The following research will seek to understand New York City public artists’ intended audience and message in the context of the broader Black Lives Matter movement. As societal transformations provoked by the global pandemic coincide with this period of civil unrest and mobilization for the Black Lives Matter movement, activism has similarly needed to adapt to a dependency on digital communication. As public activist art has historically been place-based, reliant on physical engagement with the street or space where it lives, how has the digital reshaped the role that this art form has for social change? More specifically, how does social media advance or limit public artists’ efforts for the Black Live Matter movement?
Subject Area
Social research
Recommended Citation
Buckley, Hannah, "The Place of Artistic Activism in the Digital Age: Perspectives from Black Lives Matter Street Artists" (2021). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28547561.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28547561
