Art and Advocacy

Creating art within a digital environment is automatically an act of civic participation. I say this because through art, we are either advocating new ideas, challenging old ideas, or reinforcing current ideas. Thus, in one way or another, we are actively participating in a social and cultural discussion. It is my belief that in order to be an effective artist, we must therefore advocate the ideas which we hold to be true, and use art to try to change society and humanity for the better.

By choosing to advocate an idea through art, we can garner respect from others and from ourselves for having made a difference in someones life, as well as having the satisfaction that in some way, our voice was heard. It is wonderful to feel accomplished both in terms of artistic abilities and social advocacy. One challenge that is one we must all consider, however, is the truthfulness and moral implications of our message. Before we commit to spreading our ideas, we must first be absolutely sure that the message will in fact benefit our audience. The worst possible outcome for an artist would be if we somehow caused pain through our actions.

Finally, as an example of how our art can change people's attitudes towards a subject, I would like to share with you the work of directors Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv. Together they have created short films that advocate peace and harmony between all groups of people--particularly between Arabs and Israelis. In the short film Strangers, they emphasize that we can work together to solve our problems, and that violence is not an option. I would also encourage you to check out their other short film Offside.