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The on-line dialogue featured freeDimensional network members sharing the creative ways in which art spaces can and do provide safe havens for activists, share technical tools and training, support and guidance, and engage in social justice issues in their communities and through fD’s social justice network. 
freeDimensional (fD) is an international network that advances social justice by hosting activists in distress in art spaces and using cultural resources to strengthen their work. The network is made up of over 100 community art spaces around the world with regional hubs in São Paulo, Cairo, New York City, Berlin, and Pondicherry. freeDimensional provides resources and safe haven for oppressed activists and culture workers; facilitates knowledge-sharing among art spaces who actively participate in local community organizing; and engages the art world and mainstream media to heighten public awareness and influence policy change on critical issues.
We want to introduce you to the wonderful Art Spaces and the Featured Resource Practitioners that shared their experiences and exchanged ideas with members of the New Tactics community about how to use art spaces for activism. The tactical notebook, Art Spaces Hosting Activism: Using surplus resources to provide individual assistance and strengthen community engagement provides a great guide for learning more about this tactic. (Available in English and Spanish)
New Tactics and freeDimensional would like to thank the World Policy Institute for promoting this dialogue in their newsletter.
Featured Resource Practitioners
Our Featured Resource Practitioners, leading the dialogue, included (click here for more biographical information):
- Todd Lester (founding member and executive director) and Karen PhilIips (director of programs) of freeDimensional (fD)
- Eslam Medhat (co-founder and executive director)
- Anne (Anika) Weshinskey (professional circus and variety performer/investigator/craftsperson/arts educator/librarian) and Julie Upmeyer (artist and initiator) of Caravansarai, Turkey
- Iz Öztat (Initiator) of cura bodrum residency, Turkey
- Alicia Marván (artist and curator)of Guapamacátaro Interdisciplinary Residency in Art and Ecology, Mexico
- Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman - The Jerusalem-based Sala-Manca Group of the Mamuta Project at the Daniela Passal Art & Media Center, Israel
- Emma Ari Beltran (a poet) from Mexico
Main Themes Areas
Please participate in the dialogue by adding your comments beneath the following themes:
View the video below with subtitles: Español | Português
Brief Summary of the Dialogue
This New Tactics Dialogue titled Art spaces hosting activism & strengthening community engagement focused on various mechanisms by which art spaces are used in order to support activists in distress (See the section Providing Safe Haven: Expectations of Art Spaces and Activists below), engage human rights ideas in our theoretical understanding of activism (See the section Defining Activism & Issues of Vulnerability below) and practical engagement with communities (see the section Art Spaces and Community Engagement below). The dialogue began with a discussion of what constitutes activism. Participants then identified the challenges and benefits of using a politically-charged term like activism, and the impact of engaging activism in art spaces. Participants delved into some specific topics highlighting the relationship between art and activism: migration, community engagement, safe haven for activists in distress, maintaining a diverse network, and language barriers in art spaces and global networks. The dialogue included a discussion of how to effectively measure one's impact.
Defining Activism & Issues of Vulnerability
One of the first themes discussed was the question of how to define activism. If an art space identifies itself as being involved in political activism, they may put themselves in danger, or create barriers in reaching out to communities. Two points were raised concerning the need to evaluate the context of situations: Having a high-profile activist that needs a safe haven may act as a source of safety for the activist . On the other hand, too much publicity may put the distressed activist in danger. In addition, Todd Lester from fD shared a useful piece of advice when working on acquiring legal permissions/visas for activists in distress, it is important to tactically think about the artist/activist's CV and frame it in ways that are less controversial to the authorities.
Art Spaces and Community Engagement
The dialogue addressed an important challenge between human rights NGOs and art spaces. Traditionally, the organizational cultures are very different NGOs tend to have larger staff and more formalized decision-making structures, whereas art spaces tend to have just a few staff members. Furthermore, the two sectors are likely to choose very different strategies for pursuing the same goals. freeDimensional acts as a bridge between the two sectors.
The participants of the dialogue shared a couple examples of how to engage local community:
- Addressing issues of human mobility through artistic projects:
- Collecting stories and narratives - examples are provided here and here.
- Bridging art and activism by creating forums for creative expression of migrants' stories
- Art as witness/Art in public spaces
- Creating a digital archive of stories
- Creating partnerships between lawyers, community organizers, artists, and families, in order to document and publicize their situation
- Putting up projects and art installations in public spaces
- Building partnerships with local schools
- Using artistic tools such as videos to report on the human rights situation and the elections
- Art as Cultural Link
- Providing long-term support of local languages through writing
- Using food as a way of creating connections with communities
Providing Safe Haven: Expectations of Art Spaces and Activists
One concrete way in which art spaces host activism is by providing safe haven for activists in distress. This has been a key tactic used by freeDimensional through its work of residential art spaces. When fD hears of an activist in distress from one of its human rights partners, it can filter this request into its network to secure suitable placement. freeDimensional has been working with new art spaces worldwide through its Emerging Art Space Support Initiative so they too will be equipped to support activists in distress.
For the art space, it is essential to map one's local resources, to make sure that they can provide what the activist needs. freeDimensional's Brazil hub shared a useful breakdown of all the different resources that an organization needs to map in preparation for providing Creative Safe Haven: legal assistance, mental health therapy, health care, and financial support. The entire post detailing the resources in Sao Paulo can be found here. Furthermore, clarifying expectations of the art space itself is also very important: Caravansarai shared their expectations of wanting the activist to engage with the art space and produce work.
Language and Accessibility
The dialogue identified a major struggle in efforts for international networking and activism in general: issues of language barriers and accessibility. Participants then shared strategies that can help overcome this barrier in their work. First, several online resources for translation were shared:
Some art residencies require the artists to have at least a basic knowledge of the language of the host country. However, art spaces in countries where a "big language" is not spoken cannot do that as it would drastically limit the pool of artists that would have access to their residencies. Caravansarai suggested that one good way of overcoming that barrier is being engaged in the immediate surroundings, e.g. buying food and supplies from local vendors or sharing your work, can help foster a connection.
Another powerful recommendation was to overcome language barriers by using social networks and local partnerships, expanding one's website to have a webpage for the local community to post in their language, and continue translating from one language to another.
Sharing Resources and Networking
- freeDimensional's ning - creating groups, archiving resources
- freeDimensional - Emerging Art Space Support Initiative
- New Tactics - continuing the discussion on art spaces hosting activism and sharing resources; tactical notebooks
- Action Theatre by ASK - tactical notebook and online dialogue: Using Theatre for Human Rights Education and Action.
- Tactical mapping tool
- Power of Place by International Coalition of Sites of Conscience - tactical notebook and online dialogue.
New Tactics' tactical mapping: identifying tactics and impact
I feel the need to come together with people who are engaged with migration discourse and come from different backgrounds and discuss all levels of actions from providing humunitarian aid to working towards policy change... It would be great to somehow map out all the tactics that are developed to support immigrants in their dangerous and uncertain journeys to see how we can contribute best...
Yes! Hi Iz, I wanted to reply your comment on a desire to 'map out all the tactics' around immigrant issues, and also try to reply to Wondercabinet's question about using the New Tactics mapping tool to measure one's impact.
New Tactics' tactical mapping tool was designed to do just what you are you thinking about, Iz - map out all the tactics that are currently being used on an issue, and figure out what resources you and your allies can bring to the table and how you can best contribute these resources. Tactical Mapping is a method of visualizing the institutions
and relationships sustaining human rights abuses, and then tracking the
nature and potency of tactics available to affect these systems,
ultimately serving as a tool to monitor the implementation of strategy. We have learned that it is important to focus on relationships when analyzing human rights strategies. Human rights work involves efforts to change human behavior and the institutions established and carried on by people. Therefore, the project's tactical mapping tool emphasizes relationships - rather than more abstract causes such as history, culture, poverty, and lack of awareness.
When we facilitate the process of developing a tactical map, we first ask practitioners to identify the 'center relationship,' which consists of two people and is the smallest relationship that best represent the nature of your issue. This is the relationship that you ultimately want to change with your human rights campaign (see the image and description below for an example). Then we ask practitioners to add all the people that come in direct contact with those two people at the center for your map, and then to work out from there and identify actors that do not have direct contact with the center individuals, but still have an impact on the relationship. The next step is to identify the nature of these relationships and reflect those by using different colored markers. Once the relationships are mapped, it is possible to identify where tactics are currently being used - are they being used to target policy-makers, courts, citizens/voters, survivors, etc. Which tactics are working and which are not?
(The image below is a small part of a tactical map that we made on the Guantanamo Bay issue - the relationship at the center of the map that we wanted to change was between the GTMO torturer and the GTMO torturee.)
The next step is to identify potential leverage points and action steps. The map helps to promote
tactical innovation by pointing out new ways of intervening - new relationships to change, disrupt or strengthen.
Now, regarding the impact question - from what I have learned about the tactical map, one is able to identify and analyze the impact of a tactic because each intervention is concrete with goals, steps and outcomes. Your strategy is a collection of individual tactics that support each other - this is a way of visualizing and documenting each tactic - and each tactical step. (I hope that my colleague, Nancy, can ellaborate because I don't think I am being very clear!)
I hope this helps to give a brief introduction to this tool. If you are interested to learn more, please download an article titled "Tactical Mapping: How Nonprofits Can Identify the Levers of Change" published in the most recent volume of the Nonprofit Quarterly.
I am very interested in learning about other tools that people are using for strategic planning, and if you think this tactical mapping tool would be helpful!
Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder
Kristin Antin, New Tactics Online Community Builder