The following is an excerpt from an e-mail I received regarding combining Art and Activism.
From A Reader
Hi Fay, my name is Vinay and I write in from India… The areas of Art activism & Students for Arts Based AIDS Education (SABAE) was encouraging to read and to know that there are folks that are actually thinking and working along these lines and it’s not a lone effort here in India…I’m 25 and live in a city called Chennai… I run a small recording studio based in Chennai itself, where I divide my time between taking classes in Basic Sound Engineering and recording for local & upcoming artists & bands.
And I’ve been wondering how one could effectively mesh arts in general and social issues in order to bring about positive change in the places we live in and in society as a whole. It’s quite easy to stay cocooned in our comfort zones and turn a blind eye to all that’s happening around. As a maiden effort, am trying to swing a 6 city tour up in the North east of India with a local act & with the whole impetus of the tour being “AIDS Awareness & prevention”.
-Vinay, India March 2006
Thanks for your question! It is wonderful that you are combining your passion for music with wanting to make a difference within your community!
Education Through Art vs. Bringing Attention To An Issue
In the area of arts based activism, the work I have been involved in has taken two forms. The first has been using art to engage an audience for the purpose of education. An example of this would be a poster campaign some friends and I did encouraging safe sex. Another was giving art supplies to students, allowing them to express how they felt about AIDS through the pictures they drew. The other form has been to use art as a medium for fundraising and creating awareness around an issue. The best example I have of this is a band who uses the money they receive from CD sales to promote various causes.
Providing Information to Your Listeners
You and the bands that you manage and record could do various things. You could use the lyrics of the songs to spread the message, or you could use the music to draw peoples attention. Once you have gained an audience you could then present the information in another form, such as fliers or a brief speech around the issue of HIV/AIDS. If you would like to use the tours to educate people, without having to provide the educational material yourself, it would be important to have information available at the shows. Studies of India have shown that it is important, depending on the literacy level of your target demographic, to have this material available in picture form for those who cannot read and in Hindi and the local state languages. It is also essential that you make sure the information you provide is accurate and easy to understand.
Collaboration and Fundraising
Another way you and the bands you work with could use a tour, would be to work in collaboration with groups already doing education around social issues in your area. This would remove the need to be experts on the issues, while providing visibility to the given issue the non-profit or educational group was working on. If there is not one group that the tour would aim to support, you could provide information about services, such as free HIV testing, within the area you are playing. By combining your musical talents with a groups who is fighting for a good cause, you will be assisting them in reaching a larger audience.
You could also assist with fundraising. One group which combined fundraising and education is the band Tremolo. This band began a fund called Love Is the Greatest Revenge. This fund, managed by the band, donated 50% of its royalties to a cause chosen by its listeners. As more people listen to their music not only are they given an opportunity to raise money for a cause, they can also participate in determining where that money goes. Below is a link to the fund and to their band site if you would like to have a look.
Thanks for writing, and please continue to send in questions and comments about what you are doing around the world!