Resource Library

Here you'll find books, reports, articles and links to learn more about the Art for Social Change (ASC) field.

Participatory Performing Arts Literature Review
The Future? - Interviews with young artists
Creating Social Change Through Creativity: Anti-Oppressive Arts-Based Research Methodologies
Leading from Beside
Leading from Beside: A Celebration of Community-Engaged Arts in Recreation
ADVOCATE Community-Engaged Art for Social Change!
ADVOCATE Community-Engaged Art for Social Change | MP TOOLKIT
Mapping the Landscape of Socially Engaged Artistic Practice Report
ICASC Policy Recommendations/Recommandations en matière de politiques
ICASC: Art for Social Change Policy Recommendations
A Vision for Arts and Culture in Vancouver’s West End
Presentation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage
Co-Producing Narratives on Access to Care in Rural Communities: Using Digital Storytelling to Foster Social Inclusion of Young People Experiencing Psychosis
Limitless: Inclusive Dance Creation as Pedagogy and Advocacy through Social Media Creation, production and distribution of three inclusion advocacy mixed-ability dance videos.
Leading from Beside: A Celebration of Community-Engaged Dance - Symposium and Exhibition
Terms of Engagement: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Artistic Experimentation in the Rencontres/Encounters Project. A Dialogue of Sorts.
A Walk, a Question, and Missives from the West Coast Video 'Dispatch'
Art For? Framing the Conversation on Art and Social Change “with” Steven Hill
E-Postcards: Reflection as a Scholarly Act
Our Health Depends on the Stories We Tell
The Story of Summer Visions: The Creation of a New Public in a Community-Engaged Youth Media Program
The Digital Shrine: Community-Engaged Art and Sharing of Memory With Seniors
ASCEvaluation-preview
ASC Evaluation Web-based Tool
JennSpiegel-ACW
Theoretical Debates Concerning Community Engaged Art
Finding-Voice-cover2.jpg
Finding Voice: A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change
Arlene Goldbard
Holding Space: Some principles of facilitating group dialogue
Art for Social Change Resources from ASC! Project Researchers
ArtisticResponse
Art became the oxygen: A guide to artistic response
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Social Circus: The Cultural Politics of Embodying “Social Transformation”
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Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-Based Approach
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Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice
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Lifelong learning, the arts and community cultural engagement in the contemporary university
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The CAN Report: The State of the Field of Community Cultural Development: Something New Emerges
Alchemy of Astonishment
The Alchemy of Astonishment: Engaging the Power of Theatre
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The ethics of care and transformational research practices in Aotearoa New Zealand
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The case for ‘socially engaged arts’: navigating art history, cultural development and arts funding narratives
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Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America
Thumbnail image for Nurturing Peacemakers
Nurturing the Peacemakers in Our Students: A guide to Writing and Speaking Out About Issues of War and Peace
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Ethical Ambition: Living A Life of Meaning and Worth
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More Philadelphia Murals
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Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
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Writings on the Healing Walls
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Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts: Ten Graphic Stories about Artists, Educators & Activists Across the U.S.
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Works of Heart: Building Village through the Arts
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Random Acts of Culture: Reclaiming Art and Community in the 21st Century
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Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing
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Performing Communities: Grassroots Ensemble Theaters Deeply Rooted in Eight U.S. Communities
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Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community
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Local Acts: Community-Based Performance in the United States
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The Fierce Urgency of Now
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Artistic Citizenship
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Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion 
Griffith Review Thumbnail
Griffith Review: Cultural Solutions - Notes from the Front
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ArtBridges Tips & Tools Series #4: Integrated Arts & Dance
Playing for Their Lives - Book
Playing for Their Lives
TRACKS
TRACKS: Community Play & Arts Symposium - Archive
Laughing Allowed
Building Resilient Neighbourhoods: Laughing Allowed! The Slapstick World of Neighbourhood Activism
workingthemarginsTN
Working the Margins of Community-Based Adult Learning
appliedtheatretn
Applied Theatre: International Case Studies and Challenges for Practice
reader
The Community Performance Reader
community performance
Community Performance: An Introduction
artistic citizenship tn
Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility and Ethical Praxis
Blueprint for Life tn
Blueprint Pathways Evaluation Report 2016
WWF The Partnership Toolbox
WWF - The Partnership Toolbox
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Understanding the value of arts and culture report: The AHRC Cultural Value Report
EARTH=home Teachers' Guide
EARTH=home: Teacher's Guide (2009)
From the Heart - Will Weigler
From the Heart: How 100 Canadians created an unconventional theatre performance about reconciliation
Jill Chonody
Community Art: Creative Approaches to Practice
ICASC: A Call for Partnerships
ICASC: A Call for Partnerships
So What is Art for Social Change? Video
So What is Art for Social Change?
Despertar Video 2004
Despertar! (Awaken)
Anthropology, Theatre, Development
Anthropology, Theatre, and Development: The Transformative Potential of Performance
The One and the Many
The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context
Social Works
Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics
Field
Field: A Journal of Socially Engaged Art Criticism
Strategies for Playbuilding: Helping Groups Translate Issues into Theatre
Community Engaged Theatre and Performance
Popular Political Theatre and Performance
Working with Women of Color: An Empowerment Perspective
Releasing the Imagination
The Reenchantment of Art
The Arts and Social Justice: Re-Crafting Adult Education and Community Cultural Leadership
Games for Actors and Non-Actors
Natural History of the Senses (thumbnail)
A Natural History of the Senses
AGEWELL Chataqua exhibition booklet
Unlimited
Unlimited, inclusive dance theatre
Why Art for Social Change?
Why Art for Social Change?
Documenting Engagement: A Community Arts Media Institute
I Always Look Forward To Tuesdays
'I Always Look Forward to Tuesdays' and Dancing with Parkinson's: The Calgary Project.
Anne Flynn at Walrus Talks
Dancing change / changing dance | Anne Flynn at The Walrus Talks
The Dance of Change
The Dance of Change
Harnessing ASC
Harnessing Art for Social Change
CTV Calgary
CTV Calgary: Treating Parkinson's with Dance?
Lethbridge theatre
Integrated Theatre Class 'transforms' Persons with Disabilities
Arresting Hope
Arresting Hope: Women Taking Action in Prison Health inside out
Acting Together 2
Acting Together II: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict
Enacting Resilience
Enacting Resilience Toolkit: Arts-Based Activities
Community Arts Workbook
Community Arts Workbook... Another Vital Link
Community, Culture and Globalization
Community, Culture and Globalization
Dancing our stories
Dancing Our Stories: Personal Narratives From Dance Animation and Community Dance Projects in Canada
Arts-Informed Evaluation
Arts-Informed Evaluation: A Creative Approach to Assessing Community Arts Practices
Artist and Community Collaboration: A Toolkit for Community Projects
Artist and Community Collaboration: A Toolkit for Community Projects
arts, creativity and intercultural conflict resolution
Arts, Creativity and Intercultural Conflict Resolution: Literature & Resource Review
Community Facilitation Guide
Community Facilitation Guide: Weaving Threads of Inclusion
creating the change we want
Creating the Change We Want
artcorps
ArtCorps Handbook: A guide to collaboration
Wild fire
Wild Fire: Art As Activism
Making Connections
Making Connections: Culture and Social Cohesion in the New Millennium
Dancing Bodies, Living Histories
Dancing Bodies, Living Histories
creative arts in research
Creative Arts In Research for Community and Cultural Change
International Yearbook
An Artist's Odyssey: Adventures in Art and Education
Ethics
Ethics in Community-University-Artist Partnered Research: Tensions, Contradictions and Gaps Identified Mid-Way in a Five-year Multi-Institutional 'arts for social change' project.
Judith Marcuse
The 10 biggest arts stories of 2015, from a wooden tower to a new opera fest
Making of Change
The Making of Change: Making Unlimited | Extended Trailer
social circus
Social Circus as an Art for Social Change: promoting social inclusion and cultural democracy
Of Spectacle and Collective Resistance
"Of Spectacle and Collective Resistance: Rethinking the relationships between ‘Symbolic’ and ‘Direct’ Action” in Radicalism
HOW ART WILL SAVE THE WORLD
How Art Will Save the World
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New masters program uses art for social change
Judith Marcuse
New M.Ed in Arts for Social Change at SFU
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Creative Publics art project aims to inspire young voters in Vancouver
Encouraging and engaging voters
Encouraging and engaging voters through art
Voters
Four Heartening Hints Young Voters Are Paying Attention
Creative Publics - iPolitics
Could this be the election that breaks Canadians’ political apathy?
Not a Party
'Not-a-Party' election party celebrates nonpartisan politics
Dance Therapy
Using dance as Parkinson’s therapy
Parkinsons dancers perform at High Performance Rodeo
Parkinsons dancers perform at High Performance Rodeo
arts in action
The Arts in Action: Liberal education gets creative and inclusive
Reframing the evaluation conundrum
Re-framing the evaluation conundrum in a 5-year multi-institutional arts-for-social-change partnership: a multi-scalar, context-specific, theory-driven approach
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Social circus and health equity: Exploring the national social circus program in Ecuador
Rêve Général Illimité
Rêve Général Illimité? the Role of Creative Protest in Transforming the Dynamics of Space and Time during the 2012 Quebec Student Strike
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Masked Protest in the Age of Austerity: State Violence, Anonymous Bodies, and Resistance “In the Red”
Performing in the Red
Performing ‘In The Red’: Transformations and Tensions in Repertoires of Contestation during the 2012 Quebec Student Strike
fear wonder and learning
Fear, Wonder and Learning: reimagining the human-microbe story
singular bodies collective dreams
Singular Bodies, Collective Dreams: Socially Engaged Circus Arts and the Québec Spring
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Performing in the Red: Creative Protest, the Quebec Student Movement and Anti-Austerity Activism in the 21st Century
complex social change book
Performing and Complex Social Change
State of the Art Report
State of the ART: A Report on Art for Social Change in Canada, April 2016
Arts Ripple Effect Report
The Arts Ripple Effect: A Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts
UpStart Program video by Complex Social Change
UpStart Program
Staging Data THUMBNAIL
“Staging data: Theatre as a tool for analysis and knowledge transfer in health research“
Theatre of the Oppressed THUMBNAIL
“Theater of the Oppressed as Critical Ethnography“
InnovationsTHUMBNAIL
“Innovations in Sexual-Theological Activism: Queer Theology Meets Theatre of the Oppressed“
Embodiment THUMBNAIL
“This is the embodiment of empowerment: use of forum theatre to address tobacco use in community psychiatry“
YourStory THUMBNAIL
“Your Story/My Story/Our Story: Performing Interpretation in Participatory Theatre”
Lyric Philosophy by Jan Zwicky
Lyric Philosophy
The Defiant Imagination by Max Wyman
The Defiant Imagination
Seeing Power – Art and Activism in the 21st Century by Nato Thompson
Seeing Power – Art and Activism in the 21st Century
The Work of Art in the World by Doris Sommer
The Work of Art in the World
Art during siege THUMBNAIL
Art, During Siege – Performing Arts Workshops in Traumatised Communities
Affirming Collaboration: Community and Humanist Activist Art in Québec and Elsewhere edited by Devora Neumark and Johanne Chagnon
Affirming Collaboration: Community and Humanist Activist Art in Québec and Elsewhere
Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame by Beverly Naidus
Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame
What is Stephen Harper Reading? by Yann Martel
What is Stephen Harper Reading?
The Religion of the Future by Roberto Mangabeira Unger
The Religion of the Future
The Winter We Danced edited by the Kino-nda-niimi Collective
The Winter We Danced – Voices From the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement
Power and Love by Adam Kahane
Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change
Right to Dance: Dancing for Rights edited by Naomi M. Jackson
Right to Dance: Dancing for Rights
The Fierce Urgency of Now Ajay Heble, Daniel Fischlin, and George Lipsitz
The Fierce Urgency of Now
New Creative Community – the Art of Cultural Development by Arlene Goldbard
New Creative Community – the Art of Cultural Development
The Wave by Arlene Goldbard
The Wave
The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists and the Future by Arlene Goldbard
The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists and the Future
Art as Experience by John Dewey
Art as Experience
Acting Together 1
Acting Together I: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict
Art and Upheaval – Artists on the World Frontlines by William Cleveland
Art and Upheaval – Artists on the World Frontlines
How to Change the World – Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein
How to Change the World – Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
VIVA! Community Arts and Popular Education in the Americas by Deborah Barndt
VIVA! Community Arts and Popular Education in the Americas
Toward Training: The Meanings and Practices of Social Change Work in the Arts
Art for Social Change: A Call for Candour and Connection
Theatre for Living: the art and science of community-based dialogue
Celebrating Port Hardy through Community Arts