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The article explores the historical perspectives and interpretations of Impressionism by various art historians, particularly Meyer Schapiro. It highlights the different approaches taken by scholars like Robert Herbert and T. J. Clark, who drew inspiration from Schapiro's remarks on Impressionism. It also discusses how Schapiro's views on Impressionism evolved over time, with a focus on the role of content and social context in modern art.

The author reflects his experience of experimenting with a form of social practice referred as the flash collective. Flash collective involves a series of structures which blend the skills with a fast-paced format aimed to circumnavigate the canon of relational aesthetics and activist art. He feels people are in a transitional moment in the consideration of social engagement's nature, when social practices have blurred the line between cultural and political acts.

This essay explores the sociopolitical practice of the Austrian art group WochenKlausur. Since 1993, members of this collective have produced what they call 'concrete interventions'; using funds provided by various cultural institutions, they enact long-term, problem-solving measures in the surrounding communities. Mobilizing their status as an 'art' group, they are able to draw attention to otherwise overlooked social ills. Their practice foregrounds the critical issues that arise when art is paired with activism, including the crucial and much-contested differentiation between ethics and aesthetics. I ultimately find that this group's practical successes productively, if only locally, intervene in areas that have traditionally been the purview of democratic governments, while their works that fail in these terms serve as a mirror to governments' own failures to create and maintain programs of social betterment and to promote democratic inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to explore the urban knitting movement, a worldwide phenomenon that tries to combine a domestic activity, street or folk art, the reshaping of do-it-yourself culture, and peaceful forms of urban guerrilla protest. The activists employ colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth to enhance, beautify, personalize, and gentrify abandoned public places. Furthermore, they use the Internet to share knowledge on techniques and experiences, to organize collective actions, and to record and document their artistic installations. This article is focused on an urban knitting project realized in L'Aquila (Italy) three years after the 2009 earthquake. It was called "Mettiamoci una pezza" ("Let's Patch It"). The main aim of this project was to "dress up" the main square of the city, covering the gray metal barricades that still block off citizens from some areas of downtown and adding a sprinkle of color and warmth to the devastated city. We studied this movement in an ethnographic way, by applying a qualitative content analysis of the online materials and nonparticipatory observation of this event in L'Aquila in order to investigate what the collective action did both practically and symbolically. Our research shows how the movement was able to promote a very complex and meaningful political initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Posbolonian Uniform is a creative, artistic and performative response, undertaken as a criticism and opposition to the losses of democratic freedoms that have occurred in Spain recently. It is a bid by two university instructors for the use of artistic tools, specifically performance art, as a means of social transformation in their academic environments. It is a creative rebellion and academic disobedience seeking a depoliticization of education - a change in social reconstruction through the consolidation of critical thinking tools, as art ideally should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postcode Criminals was the second phase of an international participatory community arts project challenging negative stereotypes of urban youth. Concerned with the impact of zero tolerance community policing strategies in the UK and USA, artists Joann Kushner and Dread Scott developed an art-based project with a social justice agenda. To give voice to an under-represented group, the project invited high academic achievers with no history of criminal behaviour from economically and socially deprived urban communities to participate. Postcode Criminals focused on regions of Liverpool and New York, typically sites where community policing strategies had been in force for some time. The findings of this project reveal that relationships between young people, their communities and the police force have been damaged as a direct result of community policing strategies, despite the reported success in crime reduction figures. Fear of crime was found to be a greater problem in urban communities than crime itself. Young people's experiences of 'ephebiphobia', the fear of teenagers, were articulated, creating alternative, positive representations of themselves and providing a catalyst for improved community relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the artwork of the art collective Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (GRAV) and the writing of art historian Frank Popper. It offers information about work and and essays by the group concerning kinetic art, spectacle and art within an environment. The author goes on to discuss the relationship of the two and the collective spectacle caused by the group.

The aims of this paper are to illustrate how social workers can collaborate with designers and artists in addressing social issues facing communities and to identify the implications of such collaboration for social work education. The authors examine three projects linking social work, the arts, and humanities [Arts in Recovery (AIR), the Leaving Homelessness Intervention Research Project (LHIRP), and Interdisciplinary Research on Environmental Design (IRED)] for the lessons they offer social work education. They pay particular attention to the art exhibit and its catalog as products that educate the public on various social issues, as well as the exhibit visitation experience that parallels key components of traditional group work and community development. Implications for social work include teaching interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating the arts into social work methods, emphasizing the importance of participatory action research, and creating settings that promote community engagement. The authors then draw implications for how the arts and humanities can influence or otherwise shape the paradigm of social work education and instruction in the areas of policy, human behavior, practice methods, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the views of Loredana Polezzi, an author regarding social actions and culture in the context of translation and migration. According to the author, when the components of humanity and society comes together within translation and migration studies the social boundaries do not remain in the context and Polezzi has the different view on this issue as she puts forward the concept of transculturality in the society.

In 2005, digital media artist/activist Liv Gjestvang founded a nonprofit organization, Youth Video OUTreach (YVO), to teach lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth skills to create a documentary about their lives that could serve as a centerpiece for outreach and advocacy efforts by/for LGBTQ youth. While adult-initiated, the youths primarily drove the organization's direction, goals, and outcomes. Youth Video OUTreach has combined key dimensions of critical civic praxis with artivism, primarily in out-of-school contexts, as strategies to create and capitalize on community resources and effect positive community change. Combining two concepts--Ginwright and Cammarota's (2007) critical civic praxis and Sandoval and Latorre's (2008) artivism--this article provides a framework for constructing collective, creative projects that challenge socio-cultural inequities. In particular, marginalized youth have found artivism a powerful tactic for reaching broader audiences with narratives, experiences, and perspectives that contradict and complicate dominant ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comic strip "Can You Picture This? Activism, Art, and Public Scholarship" is presented.

The article discusses modes of artistic expression used by Palestinian youths as a means of demonstrating their identity and social views, with a focus on social conditions in Palestine as of 2011. Topics include the formation of social groups based on a variety of personal interests; theories of sociology based on an ethnological approach in studying human motions in Palestinian youths' performance art; and a sociological study of Palestinian rap and hip-hop music through interviews with young artists.

The article discusses the sociopolitical interactions of artists with communication technologies. It focuses on the use of communication technologies in political activism and social change movements. The author examines the function of art in politics, the definition of activist art, and the role of artists in forms of non-violent demonstrations through the use of digital technology tools. She discusses research on the topic, focusing on predominant strategies in the use of disruptive technologies in activist art. She suggests that activist art does four things; it listens to social histories, draws attention to harmful or oppressive power structures, ends trafficking, and strives for ecological health.

An introduction to the journal's special section on artivism is presented in which the editor discusses the use of art in activism, the efficacy of artivism, fearless speech.

The article discusses how Indigenous women artists in Canada deal with activism and feminism. The author talks about the several relations between the socially constructed terms of activism, feminism, and Indigenous artists. The author also discusses how these terms relate to colonization, hegemonic western art practices, and the lack of female Indigenous artists in the mainstream art community. Indigenous artists discussed in the article include Colleen Cutschall, Rosanna Deerchild, and Lita Fontaine.

The article focuses on relationship between the arts and civic involvement in the U.S. It explains that levels of participation in public service and in the arts are declining and suggests that high schools and colleges should play a role in getting young people more involved. The research conducted on arts-based service projects is described and the results of the data analysis are examined. The benefits of service learning, including personal development, academic learning, interpersonal communication skills, and social responsibility development are also explored.

The article comments on an essay by Joel Kovel, which suggested that the political Left has no solution for the Earth's ecological crisis. The focus is on the potential of art to influence social attitudes, encourage activism, and promote equality. The Marxian cultural theory of art-as-transcendent is mentioned. The role of political artists is explained in examples including Natalie Jeremijenko who uses new media art to direct public attention to environmental justice in the project "Feral Robotic Dogs" and Connie Samaras who photographed an expedition to the South Pole.

The article presents eight narrative portraits of homeless African American women in Detroit, Michigan, which were compiled as part of the city's Leaving Homelessness Intervention Research Project (LHIRP), and discusses the process by which the artistic component of the project came about. Details of various factors that contribute to the high rate of homelessness among African American women in Detroit such as predatory lending, lack of access to health and social services, and lack of affordable housing are presented. It is reported that that the narrative portraits were compiled by the artist as part of a multimedia installation which was created to publicize these factors to Detroit residents.

This essay discusses the practice of animal vivisection of John Ruskin. The author mentions that Ruskin resigned as Slade Professor of the History of Art in the University due to an endowment of a physiology laboratory at Oxford where he can practice animal vivisection. It also discusses the conflicts between Ruskin and the administration of the University which include humane studies of art and literature and their relation to the form of study, and their beliefs between humanity and the creation of God. The author relates the practice of vivisection by Ruskin to the theories of Charles Darwin.

An essay is presented on political art and social activism in India. It explains that women's media advocacy has stopped creating innovative ideas, and comments on the need for more media advocacy. The project called "A Woman's Place" is mentioned and the film "UnLimited Girls," which is directed by the author, is explored. Information about the process of making the film is also provided.

An essay is presented on feminist art in Poland. It mentions the artists Pawel Althamer and Artur Zmijewski, and discusses the work "Passion" by Dorota Nieznalska. Information about the history of feminist art in the country is provided and specific works of art are mentioned and described. Censorship and the role of art in social activism are also explored.

An essay is presented on the traveling medical clinic called Women on Waves, founded by the Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts. The clinic provides gynecological services to women in countries with limited access to birth control and abortions. The clinic can legally be within twelve miles of the nation into which it has docked. The effects of criminalizing abortion, including the increase of unsafe abortions, are discussed and the relationship between Women on Waves and the art world is explored.

The article focuses on African American activist and comedian Dave Chappelle, whose satirical television program "Chappele's Show," (Comedy Central Network) presents a comedic discourse on issues such as racial inequality, prejudice, and intolerance in the U.S. Mentioned is New York University professor Diana Taylor's notion of "scenarios of discovery" to analyze the comedic performance on "Chappele's Show." Also discussed is the concept known as "comiculture."

This essay focuses on the music of the female folk duo Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, also known as the Indigo Girls. According to the author, characteristics of the misfit southern U.S. identity are represented in the music of the Indigo Girls. The author believes their songs are able to both identify with and confront various aspects of southern culture. The author also discusses the way in which the band promotes political, religious, and social activism through personalized songs.

In the following article, a plaza metaphor and theories of plazability are applied to the recent work of three "Other" art educators to acknowledge, examine and articulate a refreshed vision for all art education based in community pedagogy which expands possibilities, builds community, and uses art to work for social change. Examples suggesting such achievements in creating plazability include work front a community artist backed by a visionary community arts foundation, a progressive cultural museum director and staff, and a contemporary artist each actively engaging the community in diverse ways. The innovative and community grounded practice and philosophies of these "Other" art educators suggest new possibilities for art teaching and learning through making a transfer to collective authority in the art classroom and call for the creation of new discursive spaces within art education practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose is to show the working class that art and artists are not strangers to it; that some artists faithfully fight beside them…trying always to put their creative capacity at the service of the people. Thus, the workers can also realize that art is a career and a social activity that is useful, and not the idle pastime that the bourgeois philosophers pretend it is. The artists and the workers will understand that the artist can be a useful collaborator with whom it can acquire an effective, solid, and permanent collaboration [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the contribution of art by artist Robert Rauschenberg related to the American postwar political and social scene. Rauschenberg's art, especially his Combines, places a significant impression in modern art. He has created a form of art receptive to a broad array of materials with specific details.

The article discusses social action through art focusing on the issues of diversity within the community. The author provides an overview of the papers featured in this issue describing the topics in brief. It gives specific emphasis to the 1995-1996 proposed social action using art themes. The social relevance and effect of the arts in consolidating and differentiating social diversity are discussed.

The article discusses the social dimension of architecture in the twenty-first century. The author addresses three themes in particular: Social activism of architects, a shift in the interpretation of architecture from representation to material function, and political aspects of architecture such as its relationship to capitalism. The influence of French social theorist Henri Lefebvre on the architectural theory and philosophy and interdisciplinary influences on architecture are also considered.

An essay is presented on a women's art collective in Honduras. It presents a narrative story of one young woman from Honduras who joins the program, called Escuela Taller, and illustrates the program's effectiveness in improving the situation of women in the country. Information about the abuse and treatment of women in Honduras is also provided.

The article discusses the author's art class. She shares her experience with fourth-graders doing quilts. They liken it to doing time capsules that link people and places. It also gives particular attention to the theme of this issue focusing on social action through art. Other concerns are briefly discussed.

The objective of this research is to understand how during a century long of practice of modern art in Tunisia only the history of artists from the "Ecole de Tunis" are known. However when looking through several first hand documents, even those that were neglected, and by linking several events a parallel history arises. Thus the world of art is surely not on knows. How can one explain the success of this group of painters and the repression of post-colonial dynamic artistic that was on the rise? How could such a comprise be obtained and the prefect social efficiency be baised on persuasion. The theory of management, the sociology of small groups and the sociohistory allowed me to understand the social action of this group. This action is the results of coalition and exclusion strategies that allowed this group form "Ecole de Tunis" to monopolise the world of art until the eighty's. If the conventional history contradicts what really happened, nevertheless it had a perfect social efficiency because together all the actors, even those in opposition, adhere to it by believing in it. Consequently even they have contributed to the belief of the ideas received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the exhibition "Forms of Resistance: Artists and the Desire for Social Change From 1871 to the Present," at the Yanabbe Museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands from September 22, 2007-January 6, 2008.