The Loyola Phoenix covered four of the five projects the students produced.
THTR 395: The Artist as Activist – Spring 2007
Meeting Time: Tuesday, 6pm – 9pm
Classroom: Damen Hall 440
Instructor: Tom Tresser, tom@tresser.com
The Course
The course is based on the premise that creativity is an essential component of a vital democracy. Students will be introduced to the concept of the Creative Economy, which generates over $960 billion in annual revenues in the U.S. We will explore the idea of creativity as a national value capable of driving public policy and civic engagement. The class will explore several ways to be an organizer around issues of culture and creativity. During this course students are given an introduction to community organizing strategies and tactics and will be exposed to a number of cultural policy controversies and the key players who are working to make a difference in those areas. We will also examine the work of social change leaders who use the arts as their primary role of intervention. These practitioners are collectively known as Interventionists. This class combines readings, class exploration and an out-of-class research project where students will pick a social change cause that is meaningful to them, research that issue and do a performance/artistic-based presentation on that issue. No prerequisite is required for this course.
The Instructor
Tom Tresser is a former actor, theater producer and community organizer. Based in Chicago, he has been working since 1990 to involve cultural workers and creative professionals in politics and civic affairs. He has spent the last two years organizing the Creative America Project (www.creativeamerica.us), a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan effort which aims to inspire and train creative professionals to seek leadership positions in public life. Tom has produced and facilitated a number of training sessions for artists on how to enter community organizing and civic engagement work. He’s written a book based on his cultural organizing, "Win With Creativity! Why and How Creative Professionals Should Run for Local Office.” He has presented for the League of Chicago Theatres, Arts Midwest, Arts Wisconsin, ArtPride New Jersey, ArtServe Michigan and the Detroit College of Creative Studies. He believes that many of our creative peers are already leaders who possess values, skills and experience desperately needed in the public sector. Information about his work in arts and community development, arts and politics and community organizing. In 2003 he was appointed Visiting Fellow in Arts and Culture at the DePaul University College of Commerce’s Ryan Center for Creativity and Innovation. Tom was elected to the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School’s Local School Council in April 2004. He is teaching "The Politics of Creativity" for DePaul’s Political Science Department and "Creative Tools for Social Change" for DePaul's Peace & Social Justice Program.
Course Objective
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to several key concepts and constructs:
- The basic outline and dimensions of the Creative Economy,
- How creativity can serve as the basis of public policy and civic engagement,
- The basics of Direct Action Organizing,
- An introduction to non-traditional social change activists who use a range of theatrical tactics for their work,
- How to translate the tactical goals of a student social service/social change organization into a public, street-theater type of event.
The Learning Experience
The course will employ a blend of lecture, student dialogue, guest experts, case studies, performance and hands-on student investigation and original work. We will use two main texts: “Organizing for Social Change” by Bobo, Kendall & Max (third edition), and “The Interventionists – User’s Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life,” by Thompson & Sholette. The most important thing students will need to know about this course is that we will be entertaining proposals for donated campaign work to campus student organizations who are working for social change. We will invite representatives of all student groups who have a service, charity or social change agenda to come to the class to give brief presentations on their work. Students from this class will choose some of these groups to work with. The purpose of this match-making will be for students in this class to become immersed in the goals of the adopted organization and to create a theatrical or artistic public intervention or action that will help the student organization achieve some short-term goal. We will keep the size of the intervention teams to four students and their job will be to meet with representatives of the student organization outside of class and to mutually agree on some creative action, performance or communication that our students will produce and deliver that will help the organization’s cause in some material and immediate way. Each team will have a budget of $50.00 for materials.
Click here to download a Word document with student reflections in the form of comments, original art and poetry as well as coverage on four of the five teams from The Loyola Phoenix (12MB).
Student Collaborations
Nine student activist organizations sought our assistance from this class. We could only work with five groups. Each team from our class partnered with one student group. They chose Invisible Conflicts, Food Not Bombs, College Advocates for Reproductive Education, National Student Partnerships and Community Transforming Art. The teams from this class had about eight weeks to come up with a creative public event to further the goals of the student social change organization. Here's what our students came up with:
| Invisible
Conflicts is an offshoot of the
Invisible Children campaign. "Invisible children improves
the quality of life for war-affected children by providing
access to quality education, enhanced learning environments
and innovative economic opportunities." In the lobby of the main student center the movie "Invisible Children" surrounded by silhouettes of children each with a quote taken from children survivors of forced impressment into the rebel army in Uganda. |
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Food
Not Bombs came out of
Loyola's Anti-War Network (LAWN). It's part of an
international movement. Students created a three-story banner with an image of child holding a stalk of corn that looks like a bomb. Food Not Bombs is one of the fastest growing revolutionary movements and is gaining momentum throughout the world. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty. Food Not Bombs is not a charity. This energetic grassroots movement is active throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Food Not Bombs is organizing for peace and an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. For over 25 years the movement has worked to end hunger and has supported actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth. Bust It for Justice: Poetry
Music Arts Extravaganza! |
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| College
Advocates for Reproductive Education (CARE) is
a new student organization. "CARE is a brand new organization
which aims to promote healthy lifestyle choices while
educating the Loyola community about reproductive health.
Check back on our website as the semester progresses to
see what we've been up to!" Team CARE produced an evening of dramatic readings and discussion around frank stories of sexual identity, sexual awakening, abuse, exploration and confusion. The stories were profoundly honest, stark and straight-forward. Some were funny, some unsettling and some highly informative. Read the Loyola Phoenix article on the amazing evening. |
 
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Community Transforming Art is a new organization that is working to produce and install community-made art at the Loyola Red Line el stop. Team CTA cooked up an outdoor art fair on a sunny Thursday afternoon. Students and faculty donated art work that sold for $5-$20 per piece (students purchased quite a few pieces). There was live music and hands-on stenciling activities - I made the patch on the left. They sold over $250.00 worth of student donated art that afternoon! The Loyola Phoenix ran an article on CTA and this project. |
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