In 1968 students and faculty at the L’ecole des Beaux-Arts in France founded the Atelier Populaire (the Popular Workshop), a studio space in which anyone could produce a politically-themed poster on the communal printing press. Once printed, no one in the workshop was allowed to sign their posters; this created a collective authorship among the…

Palle Nielsen’s experiment The Model – A Model for a Qualitative Society was originally staged in Stockholm at the Moderna Museet in 1968. There, a large exhibition space was transformed into a giant free playground for children to play without the presence of adults. Nielsen’s ultimate goal was to create a space where kids could…

In the spring of 2017, WetLand docked along Schuylkill River at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. Mary Mattingly’s mission was to create a floating sculpture, living structure, and public space all in one to prove that thriving in a communal, sustainable urban area is possible. Her intentionally bold vision for the future drew the community in;…

Since 2006, the art collaboration Fallen Fruit has organized gatherings in cities around the world where local residents are encouraged to bring homegrown or surplus fruit and, without recipes, cook up original jams with strangers around a portable stove. There is a rough framework for the Jams but the real art is the conversations and…

First shown at the Clocktower Gallery in NYC in 1988, Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Homeless Vehicle can serve as a cart and shelter for the homeless man who survives by collecting cans for a few cents each. The vehicle has four wheels and looks like a tricked-out supermarket cart; there is a compartment for a private toilet,…

In June of 1984, a group of British miners in Orgreave, England clashed with riot police in a violent protest that resulted in an extreme example of state violence. In 2001, the artist Jeremy Deller was commissioned to facilitate a reenactment of the ‘battle’ that took place, the bitter effects of which continued to polarize…

Argentina experienced a period of massive political upheaval and unrest in 1968 during which the democratically elected president Arturo Illia was overthrown through a coup d’etat by military general Juan Carlos Onganía. As a result, there were ruthlessly suppressed protests and demonstrations throughout the country. Graciela Carnevale’s Accion del Encierro was one of many works…

Gran Fury was an artist collective that came together during the late 1980’s in the face of government apathy towards the growing HIV/AIDS crisis. They leaned heavily upon the use of visual and pop culture to employ tactics of intervention to disrupt ‘normal’ life and spread awareness about HIV/AIDS. The group repurposed easily recognizable images,…

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a worldwide activism movement that originated in the United States and combats violence against black people due to systemic racism. The main function of the group is to affirm and instate the fundamental rights of marginalized black people to function as full citizens of the contemporary world without fear of…

Guaraná Power is a soft drink that is produced by a collective of farmers in the Maués municipality of Brazil. The soft drink was produced in response to decreased competition within the guaraná seed market due to monopoly by multinational corporations, thus driving costs down and threatening the livelihoods of these small scale farmers. The…