Les Pappas, President & Creative Director of San Fransisco and New York based social advertising and marketing agency Better World Advertising (BWA) writes that:
I started BWA because I saw the power that social marketing could have in helping individuals, and society as whole, in solving issues that cause a lot of pain and suffering. I still believe that getting information to people and delivering messages that motivate them to make better decisions has unlimited potential for good.
This version of Groundswell Talks is a collaboration with Marc van Gurp of Osocio, and is also published as one of their Round Tables. We spoke with Les Pappas and Emily Foran, Art Director at BWA, about their work and connections to the communities they represent.
After an incredible weekend of theorizing capitalism, enjoying some What Cheer? jubilation, and driving red-eyed from Baltimore, Groundswell is back from the City from Below conference, and will be delivering some documentation from the weekend.
Several workshops focused on cultural production within social movements, with presentations from such familiar faces as DS4SI, Not An Alternative, and the Midwest Radical Culture Corridor drifters. Others discussed media activism, victory gardens, and anarchitecture, so stay tuned, there’s much to come!
All posts related to the conference will be tagged “City from Below,” and you can click here to get an overview of the happenings.
City from Below Poster by Icky of JustSeeds
We’ll return Monday, after the City from Below conference. There might be a few Twitter updates over the weekend; click to follow Groundswell.
This year, during the third week of April, a series of events throughout New York City’s five boroughs will celebrate the history and contributions of immigrants to the city’s cultural and economic life. Immigrant Heritage Week, a project of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, has inspired The Queens Museum of Art to solicit storytelling audio projects about families’ immigration experiences. The jukebox will be placed in their Café, and the projects used as a playlist for other museum events.
Att: Gabriel Roldós
Queens Museum of Art
NYC Bldg, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens, NY 11368
Without You I am Nothing: Cultural Democracy from Providence and Chicago is an exhibition of works on paper that are not intended for public consumption but to create small venues for public participation. It will be mounted at Chicago’s Green Lantern Gallery through April 25, 2009, and probably travel to Providence’s 5 Traverse Gallery sometime in July.
Poster Concept, Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida (2008)
Without You I Am Nothing explores two distinct and vibrant worlds of mass-produced, artist-created prompts for cultural democracy in its respective eponymous locales. Participating artists explore the mediation of visual culture – which, in late capitalist America, can be essentialized as consumption – and discover “more fair ways to respond,” primarily through creating extremely subjective experiences of the work. The pieces require more of the reader, and may be
malleable, 3-dimensional, tactile, transient, or somehow otherwise inclusive of elements that can move, deteriorate, or be removed; or bits that must be rubbed, poked, ripped, pressed, wettened, prodded, or yanked to achieve full poster satisfaction.
Satisfaction, however, is not guaranteed.
Curated by Anne Elizabeth Moore, the group show is presented in conjunction with the Southern Graphics Council, and features work by:
Andrew Oesch
Angee Lennard
Agata Michalowska
Dan S. Wang, Myriel Milicivic, and Kevin Haywood
Delia Kovac
DeWayne Slightweight
Karin Patzke
Heather Ault
Jason Tranchida
Jean Cozzens
Laura Szumowski
Matthew Lawrence
Meg Turner
Rob Ray
Sonnenzimmer
Xander Marro
The opening reception is this Friday, March 27, between 6:00-9:00PM, with live musical performances provided by Helen Money, John Bellows, and DeWayne Slightweight from 8:00-11:00PM.
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