A new music discovery tool that allows you to search a rich database of songs that speak to hundreds of causes and concerns—from tolerance and equality to peace and freedom to economic and social justice. The Music2Life Song Source lets you sort by artist, genre or cause to learn more about today's music of meaning.
Profiles - Projects
Looking for a comprehensive list of Projects using the arts to create social change?
Use the map and listings below to browse 13+ pages of Project profiles, or use the filters and keywords to refine your search. You can also view a comprehensive listing of all profiles, or view the listings separated by Artists and Organizations.
Is your project making social change through the arts?
Register now or sign in to add your Project profile(s) to this list.
Philadelphia, PA
Muslim Voices of Philadelphia is a collaborative oral history media project that calls on all interested members of Islamic educational and cultural organizations to work with filmmakers and scholars to document the histories, practices, and contributions of the many Muslims who have come to call the Philadelphia region home. Muslim Voices of Philadelphia connects archival research, ethnography, oral history, and digital media to encourage community organizations to record their rich and diverse histories.
Austin, TX
For over a decade allgo has successfully developed cutting-edge programming that engages community members on a number of issues through the arts. ALLGO's Cultural Arts Program is committed to nurturing and exploring queer people of color aesthetics by providing resources and audiences for diverse artists while allowing communities to experience art which reflects our experience and illuminates our struggles.
Nashville, TN
Our Mission:
Through performances of the highest artistic quality, post-show discussions, and creative workshops, to honor and serve our veterans and to help our communities process the social and cultural effects of war with integrity, in an honest and responsible manner.
Minneapolis, MN
Yard signs are as ubiquitous and familiar to the American political landscape as baby-kissing and stump speeches, combining catchy images and pithy campaign slogans to increase visibility for vying candidates and their parties’ messages. In honor of the 2008 election season, My Yard Our Message turned the tradition of political ephemera on its ear with a unique national competition that placed the message and the creative design for political yard signs into the hands of artists.
Neighborhood Art Project
Iowa City, IA
In 2003, the City Council of Iowa City endorsed the concept of providing funding for expansion of the Iowa City Public Art program into the neighborhoods of the city. The program, directed to the city's geographically defined neighborhoods, provides funding to the residents of the neighborhood to initiate development of their art programs in their neighborhood.
Some of the purposes for developing art in the neighborhoods are:
Seattle, WA
The New Dialogue Initiative is a multi-strategy program, including multi-sensory exhibits, that address community concerns and urgent needs about contemporary social issues and current news events, giving voice to underrepresented ideas and opinions from the Asian Pacific American community.
San Francisco, CA
New Muslim Cool is a powerful documentary by filmmaker Jennifer Taylor that tells the story of Hamza Pérez, a young Puerto Rican hip hop artist who converted to Islam at age 21, pulling himself off the streets to become a community activist and rising star. The film follows Hamza as he reaches for a deeper understanding of his faith, discovering new connections with people from Christian and Jewish communities.
New York, NY
The New Victory Usher Corps is a model creative youth development program that focuses on each teen’s individual education and professional goals while providing paid employment in a prominent Times Square theater.
Baltimore , MD
This photo documentary project addresses and confronts commonly held myths about immigrants in the U.S. The exhibition documents the lives of several immigrants who live in North Baltimore City.
Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford, CO
In late 2011, the Orton Family Foundation awarded a two-year economic planning grant to North Fork Valley in Colorado—three interdependent towns of about 7,000 residents with a very rich arts environment. The towns wanted to take control of future growth in a way that protects the character of their rural place; Orton’s Heart & Soul Community Planning program would provide the needed resources, including funds, technical assistance and a valuable planning framework.
Los Angeles, CA
The Not a Cornfield project transformed an industrial brownfield site in Los Angeles into a living sculpture in the form of a field of corn for one agricultural cycle. The art piece redeemed a lost but fertile ground, transforming what was left from the industrial era into a renewed space for the public.
Not In Our Town
Oakland, CA
Communities across the country use PBS documentary, Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness, as a springboard to find ways to prevent hate crimes and anti-immigrant violence. The film tells the story of residents of a Long Island village taking action after a local immigrant is killed in a hate crime attack by seven teenagers. While starkly revealing the trauma of hate, the film provides a blueprint for people who want to do something before intolerance turns to violence.
Chicago, IL
Silk Road Rising’s Not Quite White: Arabs, Slavs, and the Contours of Contested Whiteness (24 min., 8 sec.), directed by Jamil Khoury and Stephen Combs, is a documentary film dedicated to a vision of whiteness that is anti-racist and rooted in economic justice. A documentary film that explores the complicated relationship of Arab and Slavic immigrants to American notions of whiteness. Not Quite White explores the complicated relationship of Arab and Slavic immigrants to American notions of whiteness.
O+ Festival
The O+ Festival is a three-day, community-run celebration of music and the arts. O+ participating artists barter their contributions in exchange for health care services from art-loving doctors, dentists, and other wellness providers at the O+ Clinic. In short, it’s a grassroots solution to offer healthcare for the creative community. By programming the festival’s art and music events in various venues, O+ supports and unites local businesses and residents, artists, musicians and doctors, strengthening the fabric of a community to make it stronger, more sustainable, and more vibrant.
New York, NY
The Forum Project is working with organizers at Occupy Wall Street to develop a Forum performance series developed and performed by a community of Occupiers. The performance itself would explore issues of oppression important to the Occupy movement and be a space for public theatrical dialogue to begin conversations around anti-oppressive engagement.
Occupy the Stage
Occupy the Stage is an interactive theatrical experience employing forum theater scenes to spark lively conversations and insightful critical analysis of complex issues of debt, the racial wealth gap, immigration and oppression of domestic workers and more. The performance itself would explore issues of oppression important to the Occupy movement and be a space for public theatrical dialogue to begin conversations around anti-oppressive engagement and democracy.
Portland/Mollala/Oregon City, OR
Sojourn Theatre’s 2010 project On the Table is a participatory performance that bridged two Oregon communities, one urban (Portland), one rural (Mollala) with the aim to shift people’s attitudes about the places where they live. The performance required the audience to participate in inter-city travel, public dialogue, video and involvement within the performance itself, including a bus trip, a wedding and a meal. The concept goes beyond metaphorical bridge building to physically move audiences across geographic boundaries.
Portland, OR
One Day was part of a year-long collaboration between Sojourn Theatre Company and visionPDX, a public engagement initiative sponsored by the Office of the Mayor of Portland that invited community members to develop a shared vision for the future of the city. The play was part multi-narrative performance, part civic dialogue. It told the story of eight fictional Portlanders (composites based on themes drawn from civic engagement research conducted by Sojourn and visionPDX) and the choices they had to make within a 24-hour-period in the city.
One Family at a Time: The Baltimore Housing Mobility Program
Short video documentary about the impact of the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program on a family living in poverty in Baltimore.