Arts for Change - by Beverly Naidus (Paperback)

About the Book

Activist arts educators reveal best methods for engaging students and community in critical social issues

Book Synopsis

Beverly Naidus shares her passion and strategies for teaching socially engaged art, offering, as well, a short history of the field and the candid views of more than thirty colleagues.

A provocative, personal look at the motivations and challenges of teaching socially engaged arts, Arts for Change overturns conventional arts pedagogy with an activist's passion for creating art that matters.

How can polarized groups work together to solve social and environmental problems? How can art be used to raise consciousness? Using candid examination of her own university teaching career as well as broader social and historical perspectives, Beverly Naidus answers these questions, guiding the reader through a progression of steps to help students observe the world around them and craft artistic responses to what they see. Interviews with over 30 arts education colleagues provide additional strategies for successfully engaging students in what, to them, is most meaningful.

From the Back Cover

"Beverly Naidus' warm and serious pedagogic memoir should ring bells with educators everywhere. I have long admired her commitment to an alternative path in teaching art and social justice without contradictions. Her personal and political odyssey, and the thumbnail portraits of her artist colleagues/mentors, offer an illuminating glimpse beyond the academic curtain."
--Lucy R. Lippard, author, The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society

"Arts for Change is essential reading for artists, art teachers, educational administrators, and students of art. It brings to life a pedagogical practice, employed for years by a significant number of socially-engaged activist artists, known but to few outside this community."
--Nina Felshin, author, But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art as Activism

"Beverly Naidus has threaded her life story as an artist and teacher working for social change with the texts that are important to her, the parents and teachers who inspired her, the syllabi she has designed, and the stories of people engaged in this field today.... This text is an important addition to the history of our field--a lens through which all art educators in public schools and universities can view and transform their practice."
--Dr. Amy Brook Snider, Chair, Art and Design Education, Pratt Institute

"Naidus argues passionately for a different kind of art, one that builds social muscle and can make a difference in the world. I predict this book will inspire exciting and innovative trends in both art and education and critical theory, tilting them more in the direction of interdisciplinary and socially engaged practices. And I agree with Naidus' core proposition that the times demand nothing less."
--Suzi Gablik, art critic, artist, teacher and author, The Re-Enchantment of Art and Conversations Before the End of Time

"In a world full of horror--war, torture, poverty, hunger, racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental degradation, and so much more--Beverly Naidus offers us hope and inspiration. Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame underscores our understanding of activist art as an indispensable component of progressive social change. It also impels us to join forces with the artists who serve as the humanity's conscience."
--Paul Von Blum, Senior Lecturer, African American Studies, Communication Studies, and Art History, UCLA

Beverly Naidus has been using art to dream, question, stir things up and find community for a few decades. She's been teaching others to do the same for almost as long and is currently on the faculty of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

Review Quotes

"Arts for Change is essential reading for artists, art teachers, educational administrators, and students of art. It brings to life a pedagogical practice, employed for years by a significant number of socially-engaged activist artists, known but to few outside this community."--Nina Felshin, author "But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art as Activism "

"Arts for Change is not just a book for teachers; it is a book that invites everyone to think about how the individual affects the collective."--Andrea Avila "Canadian Art Teacher "

"Discussing art and its applications to countless issues, and how people have empowered themselves through it, Arts for Change is a look at arts, politics, and culture as a whole through modern America. Arts for Change is an intriguing read, especially recommended for those who transmit messages through their art."--Midwest Book Review

"Naidus argues passionately for a different kind of art, one that builds social muscle and can make a difference in the world. I predict this book will inspire exciting and innovative trends in both art and education and critical theory, tilting them more in the direction of interdisciplinary and socially engaged practices. And I agree with Naidus' core proposition that the times demand nothing less."--Suzi Gablik, author, "The Re-Enchantment of Art and Conversations Before the End of Time "

"Naidus does an excellent job of drawing in all kinds of readers by weaving story and academic reflection together as opposing yet familiar textures. The overall effect is a powerful account in which theory develops through history, personal story, and the words of others, making Arts for Change an enlightening read."--Kelly Campbell-Busby "Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship "

"This book offers an important glimpse into the personal development of one engaged artist/educator who seeks to keep growing through her dialogue with others, colleagues and students alike."--Anusha Venkataraman "Community Arts Network "

About the Author

Beverly Naidus, activist, educator, writer and artist successfully navigated the margins of mainstream art world, gaining recognition from critics Suzi Gablik, Lucy R. Lippard, Lisa Bloom, and Paul Von Blum in major media including Art Forum and Art in America. She authored One Size Does Not Fit All and What Kinda Name is That and essays on art and pedagogy.