Art for Social Justice Social Justice The idea

Art for Social Justice

Social Justice • The idea of creating a society where all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities – Solidarity: mutual support – Human rights – Everyone has dignity

Art that deals with issues of Social Justice By Ester Hernandez Ester Hernández grew up in California where she unknowingly bathed in and drank polluted water and worked in an environment contaminated by pesticides. The Hernández family was actively involved in the struggle for farm workers’ rights, an issue of great concern to César Chávez. Questions about the effects of pesticides on agricultural workers prompted her to create Sun Mad. She recounts how Sun Mad began when she went "home to visit my mother in 1979, reading the articles she saved about water contamination in the barrio. ” After thinking about it for two years, and remembering her work as a farmhand, she focused her anger on the dangers of growing grapes for the raisin industry. "I focused on something personal, the Sun Maid box, " she said. "Slowly I began to realize, ” she continued, “how to transform the Sun Maid and unmask the truth behind the wholesome figures of agribusiness. Sun Mad evolved out of my anger and my fear of what would happen to my family, my community, and to myself. " She finds strength and inspiration in the Latina women with whom she has worked.

• • • Knotted Gun by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, 1998 What do you see? What might the artist being trying to tell you using this imagery? What issues of social justice is the artist addressing?

Banksy, contemporary British artist

What is important to you? • Choose a social justice issue that is important to you • Research on your kindle for 5 -10 minutes • Sketch 3 different thumbnails that send a message about this issue in your sketchbooks • Choose one and draw it on a large piece of paper