Artivism is a portmanteau word combining ''art'' and ''activism'', and is sometimes also referred to as ''Social Artivism''. The term artivism in US English takes roots, or branches, off of a 1997 gathering between Chicano artists from

East Los Angeles East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

and the

Zapatistas Zapatista(s) may refer to: * Liberation Army of the South, formed 1910s, a Mexican insurgent group involved in the Mexican Revolution * Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), formed 1983, a Mexican indigenous armed revolutionary group based ...

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

, Mexico. The words "Artivist" and "Artivism" were popularized through a variety of events, actions and artworks via artists and musicians such as

Quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

, Ozomatli, and Mujeres de Maiz, among other East Los Angeles artists, and at spaces such as Self Help Graphics & Art. Artivism further developed as antiwar and

anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

protests emerged and proliferated. In many cases artivists attempt to push political agendas by the means of art, but a focus on raising social, environmental, and technical awareness is also common. Besides using traditional mediums like film and music to raise awareness or push for change, an artivist can also be involved in culture jamming, subvertising,

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

, spoken word, protesting, and

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

.Politics, Power and Passion
'' The New York Times'', December 2, 2011. Please see the fifth segment by

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

.Jeanmarie Simpson -- Artivist in the Modern Landscape (Part 1)

Dylan Brody Dylan Brody (born April 24, 1964) is a U.S. humorist, playwright, author and comedian. In 2005 his play ''Mother May I'' won the Stanley Drama Award. He has appeared on A&E's '' Comedy on the Road'' and Fox TV's ''Comedy Express'' and has writt ...

, The Huffington Post, 2011.10.03Jeanmarie Simpson -- Artivist in the Modern Landscape (Part 2)

, The Huffington Post, 2011.10.05 Artivist

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

stated:

''... This passion has all the ingredients of activism, but is charged with the wild creations of art. Artivism—where edges are pushed, imagination is freed, and a new language emerges altogether." Bruce Lyons has written: "... artivism ... promotes the essential understanding that ... umans... can, through courageous creative expression, experience the unifying power of love when courage harnesses itself to the task of art + social responsibility.''

By 2005, the term had made its way into academic writing when Slovenian theatre scholar Aldo Milohnic used the term to discuss "autonomous ('alter-globalist', social) movements in Slovenia that attracted wide attention. In carrying out their political activity they made use of protests and direct actions, thereby introducing the 'aesthetic', willingly or not". In 2008,

Chela Sandoval Chela Sandoval (born July 31, 1956), associate professor of Chicana Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, is a noted theorist of postcolonial feminism and third world feminism. Beginning with her 1991 pioneering essay 'U.S. Third W ...

and Guisela Latorre published a piece on Chicano/a artivism and

M. K. Asante M. K. Asante (born November 3, 1982) is an American author, filmmaker, recording artist, and professor. He is the author of the 2013 best-selling memoir ''Buck''.

using the term in reference to Black artists. There is a chapter on artivism in the book ''

It's Bigger Than Hip Hop ''It's Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation'' is a creative non-fiction book by M. K. Asante. ''It's Bigger Than Hip Hop'' employs hip hop culture as a vehicle to explore important social and political issues facing the hi ...

'' by M. K. Asante. Asante write''s of the artivist:''

''The artivist (artist + activist) uses their artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation.''

The impact of artivism vs. conventional activism was tested in a public scientific experiment in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2018. The results, reported in the journal of ''Social Movement Studies'', suggest that artivism may be more effective than conventional activism.

Artivists

Some of the artivists or self-identified as artists-activists (with Wikipedia pages) * Above * Ai Weiwei * Aloe Blacc *

Annie Sprinkle Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, femi ...

Anomie Belle Anomie Belle (an·o·me bel) is an American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and '' artivist'' from Seattle. Originally a classically-trained violinist and songwriter, Belle began writing and recording music as a child. Bell ...

* Banksy * Bleepsgr * Daniel Arzola (Spanish) *

Deborah De Robertis Deborah De Robertis (born 12 February 1984) is a performance artist and photographer from Luxembourg. She studied at the in Belgium and as of May 2020 was living in Brussels. Biography De Robertis was born in Luxembourg on 12 February 1984. W ...

* Deeyah Khan * Ernest Zacharevic * Favianna Rodriguez *

Gianluca Costantini Gianluca Costantini (born December 19, 1971) in Ravenna, Italy, is a cartoonist, artist, Comic journalist, and activist. Biography Gianluca Costantini he graduated from the Art Institute Gino Severini of Ravenna in 1991 in Applied Art and t ...

* Guillermo Gómez-Peña * JoFF Rae * JR *

Jeanmarie Simpson Jeanmarie Simpson (born November 20, 1959) is an American theatre artist and peace activist best known for writing and starring in the 2004 play '' A Single Woman'', and its 2008 film adaptation, based on the life of first US Congresswoman, Jea ...

* Judy Baca *

Julio Salgado Julio Salgado (born September 1, 1983) is a gay Mexican-born artist who grew up in Long Beach, California. Through the use of art Salgado has become a well-known activist within the DREAM Act movement. Salgado uses his art to empower undocumented ...

Kwame Akoto-Bamfo Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator and activist, known for his sculptures and massive body of works dedicated to the memory, healing and Restorative Justice for people of African descent. His outdoor sculptur ...

Las Cafeteras Las Cafeteras is a Chicano band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music fuses spoken word and folk music, with traditional Son jarocho and zapateado (Mexico), zapateado dancing. History The band started out as students of the Eastside Ca ...

* Lila Downs *

Lost Children of Babylon The Lost Children of Babylon (LCOB) are a spiritual alternative hip hop music group based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The group was founded by Rasul Allah and The Breath Of Judah in the mid 1990s and first appeared in 1996 on the Jedi ...

* Lydia Canaan *

Lynnette Haozous Lynnette Haozous (born 1985) a Native American painter, printmaker, jeweler, writer, and actor. She is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and of Chiricahua Apache, Navajo, and Taos Pueblo ancestry. Haozous works in acrylics, waterc ...

Martha Gonzalez Martha Sulay Gonzalez (1971 – June 11, 2007) was a Colombian woman whose case instigated reforms on the strict abortion law in Colombia. In 2005, Gonzalez fell pregnant with her fourth child. A gynecological examination showed that she had uter ...

Marina DeBris Marina DeBris is the name used by an Australian-based artist whose work focuses on reusing trash to raise awareness of ocean and beach pollution. DeBris uses trash washed up from the beach to create trashion, 'fish tanks', decorative art and ot ...

* Martin Aveling * Maya Jupiter *

Michel Platnic Michel Platnic (born February 26, 1970, France) is a French–Israeli Contemporary art, contemporary visual artist who has been working in Tel Aviv since 1998, and in Berlin from 2014 to 2017. He is known for his "living paintings". He uses mult ...

* Milo Moiré *

Norm Magnusson Norm Magnusson (born March 20, 1960) is a New York City, New York-based artist and political activist and founder, in 1991, of the art movement ''funism''; he began his career creating allegorical animal paintings with pointed social commentaries. ...

Pavel 183 Pavel 183 ( rus, Павел Пухов, r=Pavel Pukhov; 11 August 1983 – 1 April 2013), was a Russian street artist, known by some as the "Russian Banksy". Art and activism Pavel Pukhov fell in love with free expression when, as an 11-year-old ...

Peter Joseph Peter Joseph is an American independent filmmaker and activist. He is best known for the ''Zeitgeist'' film series, which he wrote, directed, narrated, scored, and produced. He is also the founder of the related Zeitgeist Movement. Other wor ...

Quetzal (band) Quetzal is a bilingual (spanish language, Spanish-English language, English) Ch