Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Cities are facing social, economic, and physical challenges rooted in systems of exclusion. In response to these urban challenges, activists and organizers are using art as a cooperative platform to challenge societal inequalities and mobilize collective voice to call out systems of exclusion that underscore daily life in the city. Can arts activism inform city policy around targeted community issues to advance the right to the city for residents? This paper draws on examples in New Orleans and Phoenix. Residents in each city face competing challenges from equity and political representation, blight and housing, displacement of cultural communities, and challenging colonial legacies that still define the built environment. In Phoenix, art is integrated within Latinx organizing to building political participation through voting and mobilizing the community to run for office. One group is using art to reclaim urban space as queer, immigrant space through public performances and art actions in support of undocumented communities. In New Orleans, activists and artists are using art as a community building platform around housing and displacement to challenge the city to restructure its blight policies. Other groups are targeting the lasting Confederate legacies that dot the city to advocate for city intervention. In this way, arts activist tactics are negotiating with city officials to shift city policy to create a future city driven by equity and inclusion.