This summer, in collaboration with the Center for Human Rights of Oaxaca, I held an art course for Oaxacan youth.  We focused on using public art to raise social consciousness of human rights issues.

        I spent the first few weeks in Oaxaca volunteering at the Center for Human Rights, getting their support for the art class, permission for the venue, and advertising the class, “Arte Publico y los derechos humanos” through posters, radio, and internet.  The class ran for 3 weeks, from Monday to Thursday, 6-8 in the evening.  There was a total of 16 students aged 13-24, some from smaller pueblos outside of the city, others spending time in the city from distant towns several hours away.

        In addition to introducing color theory, examples of the variety of public art and its artists, and current performance art, an important part of our art class became discussion and artistic critique of the current marches and raids by the government and protestors, sparked by the governor’s violent raid of a peaceful sit-in by teachers in the center of town.  There was an explosion of creativity sparked by the social unrest.  Oaxacans were expressing their political stance artistically on every street; graffiti, puppets, life-size dioramas, banners, and marches.

        In critiquing these events, our class concentrated on intentionality, context, and symbolism, expanding our definition of public art.

        We also discussed migrant rights, specifically concentrating on the experience of Mexicans crossing to the United States.  I teach a class for young Latino immigrants in Carrboro, NC, and we worked on mail art projects to create an exchange between the youth of Oaxaca and my immigrant students, showing how an established institution can be used creatively to support a personal cause.  I’m also working on creating a website to provide another venue for exchange between my former students in Oaxaca and my students in Chapel Hill.

        As for me, I concentrated on emphasizing my students’ responsibilities as citizens and artists, empowered with the idea that they can make a difference.   

        My role as the teacher was to provide the materials, support, techniques, and examples, but to emphasize that they had the power to decide where, how, and what they were doing for our projects.

        Our class culminated with a final public exhibition in the center of town.  We designed a huge inflatable hand, filled it full of facts about human rights, and encouraged the public to enter it, interact, and contribute their own personal responses.   

        For this final project, I brought to their attention the issue of control—how much did they want to give to the public in this interactive exhibit?  I also had to examine this issue: how much power to give to my students and still effectively guide them to produce a focused group project.

        Art has long been considered a solitary process, and in it’s evaluation the success or failure of an individual as an artist.  In contrast, through my collaboration with the Oaxacan community we made art as a social practice, transcending the distanced formality of aesthetics.  Public art expressing a social consciousness expands the definition of political struggle, and in doing so incites others to participate in both the purpose and practice. Hopefully my students were left with a sense of responsibility to the community, and also inspiration to respond to these issues in creative manners.