Artists can enact social change by [1] building knowledge and vision through their art, [2] incorporating visions of change into their work to develop emotional and rational connections with causes, and [3] directing social action toward reasonable goals. However, too much emotion may lead to extremism, so committed artists guide action to balanced outcomes. The Cheap Art movement launched in 1982 to make art affordable and accessible to more people and inspire participation, countering the commercialization of art.

1. & Social Change

2. Move the wheel of change ahead Artists= Educators:
From stasis to action
• Build core knowledge
• Teach
• Have a vision about change
• Incorporate visions into their art (LPs)
• Build emotional and rational attachment with
“A CAUSE”

3. Information + Emotional attachment to a
cause + Sense of Direction + Activism +
Ideological line +…
>> ACTION
No Cause > No action
Too Much emotion might lead to
fanatism, fundamentalism, Obscura
ntism…

4. Committed artists
Les artistes engagés (FR)
“Artist create a world that is more real
than reality.”
Artist direct social action towards a
reasonable space…

5. Howard Zinn, 2003

6. Al-Salam Alikom!
My name is Hanzalah. In case you are
wondering what Salam Alikom is; it is the
Islamic way of saying halloo and it means
"Peace be upon you!”. Well, as I told you my
name is Hanzalah, which stands for a small
bitter desert bush. I bet you are saying; what
was my father thinking when he named me?
My father is Naji Al-Ali. I was born ages ago, to
be exact since the beginning of strong and
weak, rich and poor, and justice and injustice.
Which is strange in a way since my father was
born in 1937.
Naji Salim al-Ali
(1938-1987)
najialali.com

7. Naji Salim al-Ali

12. The Cheap Art movement was launched in 1982 by the
Bread and Puppet Theater in direct response to the business
of art and its growing appropriation by the corporate sector.
With this fact taken into account art becomes:
Cheap Art “political whether you like it or not…”
Philosophy Cheap Art hopes to reestablish the appreciation of artistic
creation by making it available to a wider audience and
inspire anyone to revel in an art making process that is not
subject to academic approval or curatorial acceptance.
Why? “Because art is food…”, reads the Why Cheap Art
manifesto. Cheap Art ranges in price from 5 cents to 50
dollars. Anyone can participate!
breadandpuppet.org