Resource Library | Art for Social Change

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Recommended Readings and Media

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

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Datastan Meets Storyland: Surfing the Zeitgeist Without Wiping Out

Datastan Meets Storyland: Surfing the Zeitgeist Without Wiping Out

A Restless Art, by François Matarasso

A Restless Art: How participation won, and why it matters

No Stepping Back: The Story of a Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Play for Children

Participatory Performing Arts Literature Review

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

Mapping the Landscape of Socially Engaged Artistic Practice Report

A Vision for Arts and Culture in Vancouver’s West End

Art For? Framing the Conversation on Art and Social Change “with” Steven Hill

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

Finding Voice: A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change

Arlene Goldbard

Holding Space: Some principles of facilitating group dialogue

ArtisticResponse

Art became the oxygen: A guide to artistic response

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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

Thumbnail image for Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution

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

Thumbnail image for Writings on the Healing Walls

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

Thumbnail image for Undoing the Silence

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

Thumb image for Fierce Urgency

The Fierce Urgency of Now

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Artistic Citizenship

Dance Human Rights thumbnail

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

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.

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

Arts Ripple Effect Report

The Arts Ripple Effect: A Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts

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

Theatre for Living: the art and science of community-based dialogue

Celebrating Port Hardy through Community Arts