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Art of Activism (Oxford)

The Ox-Fly | 19.11.2010 18:07 | Culture | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | Oxford

Art of activism are an Oxford based art collective hoping to bring creativity out onto the streets and raise awareness that art can play a role in social change.

Article taken from Issue 1 of The Ox-Fly - Oxford's radical newsletter:
 http://theoarc.org.uk/oxfly.pdf
 http://theoarc.org.uk/oxfly_hires.pdf
 http://theoarc.org.uk/oxfly.txt

We recognise the creativity of all people, not just ‘artists'. We also recognise that in a society where the state encourages markets and profits over people and relationships, the creativity of most people is suppressed.

In this atmosphere we need to take responsibility for bringing creativity into our own lives, since support from above is not available. Even if it were, it might involve limits and barriers to the creative process; authority has always struggled with the arts as it recognises their capacity for subversion.

One important feature of our group is that we value the process of creating art more than the end result. Creating art is a process that can bring people together, break down barriers and educate everyone involved. We do not fetishise gallery space as a goal; we are more interested in involving as many people as possible and bringing about social change.

We want to see strangers talking to one another, creating art together, coming to the same conclusions while feeding those thoughts into a creative process – a process that is open and easy to access for all. Projects like our next piece – Democracy Outside on 26th Nov in Bonn Square – aim to involve as many passers-by as possible. Through a creative, participatory workshop (coupled with some pretty cool filming) we hope to explore together the nature of democracy and our ability, obligation and right to challenge "democratic" institutions.

Want to get involved?
 artofactivism@gmail.com

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