Customer Reviews

Wild Fire: Art as Activism

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This review was originally published on the Arts and Healing Network - [...]

This is a wonderful collection of personal essays written by artists and activists who share their stories and experiences of creating and teaching with a focus on the inseparability of art and social change. The book is broken up into four parts: Art in Social Movements; Art as Activism; Eco Art; and Art Heals, with each chapter sharing an intimate, first-hand account by the artists themselves.

This collection spans the globe and exhibits a variety of writing styles, from Petra Kukacka's stream of consciousness piece "Mixing Metaphors" to more academic dissertations like Stephanie Conway & Julia Winckler's "Acts of Embodiment," to Oona Padgham's straight interview-styled piece "Arts in Detention." It also covers a range of artistic projects - from mural paintings, photography, zine-making, and alternative publishing, to street theater, puppetry, and protest singing. Both triumphs and failures are shared in this collection, which as an artist myself, I find wonderfully inspiring and helpful. I really enjoyed reading about the act of creating community art in the heart of the struggles that go on every day in our world.

The book includes a few black and white photos, but I would have loved to see images attached to each project. Unfortunately, there are no websites listed for further information about these artists and their projects.

I highly recommend these dynamic essays to activists, artists, educators, students, and community workers who share a passion for art, politics, and social change. It's also a wonderful collection for anyone interested in exploring community art, art as activism or funding community art projects.