Artists Building Power and Shifting Narratives
On many of the issues that are most important and most urgent, we need change at a level that cannot even be conceived within our current political discourse. From climate change to immigration to gender equity and LGBTQIA+ rights, politicians and political commentators discuss solutions that represent constrained thinking and marginal change. Our debates can lack imagination and provide marginal space for transformative changes that might actually lead to the world we seek to create. Our laws, policies, and interpersonal interactions need a radical reimagining.
In contrast, artists live in the space of imagination and transformation. They see the world around them not simply as it is, but also as it could be. Artists push up against conventional wisdom or self-limiting notions of what is possible. What if artists had a greater role in the most important conversations, and what if there were stronger links between artists and movements for change? We believe deep, systemic change would be conceivable to many more members of the public and the political elite alike.
Today, though, artists have few opportunities to shape these conversations. Their work is often treated as decorative by movement organizations and elected leaders. Though many cultural decision-makers like directors, producers, and curators are quick to voice their support for systemic change, they still continue to hire an outsized number of white, male, straight, and cis creators. As a result, the cultural landscape, and particularly the pop culture landscape, is still too homogenous and the kinds of narrative-shifting ideas we need still fail to breakthrough.
The Cultural Engagement Lab, and their c3 arm The Center for Cultural Power, understand that, in order to create deeper change, artists, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, must be leaders in change movements, in cultural sectors, and in our society as a whole. Without their voices, our political institutions will remain sclerotic, our policy debates will be static, and our narratives will reinforce the status quo. By investing in artist leadership, intersectional storytelling, and field-building, The Center for Cultural Power is creating the role for arts and artists in our politics, and in our society at large that will drive deep and lasting change. The Cultural Engagement Lab leverages this work with the ability to engage in political advocacy. Both organizations are led by artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez and a team of artist disruptors practicing in the field for more than a decade.
The Cultural Engagement Lab ignites change by collaborating with artists and culture makers to create compelling and inspiring content that powers issue advocacy, political, and electoral campaigns to create a more just and equitable world.
Art and culture are powerful engines for voter engagement. Strong movement organizations know how to engage their audiences, but often lack the creative digital content to complement their organizing efforts. When campaigns and organizations partner with artists to tell authentic stories, they can win in the near term and lay the groundwork for powerful narratives to take hold, which makes policy change more probable and sustainable over the long term. Their 2020 pilot project brought together experienced political strategists, compelling artists, and cutting-edge movement organizations. Combined with bold, risk-tolerant funders this formula created a breakthrough. There have been previous efforts to combine cultural strategy with progressive political engagement. Yet, more often than not, the results have been heavy on moral victories on a small scale, but light on electoral impact. Cultural Engagement Lab changed the math on the mix of artists and politics and offered a window into a new strategy for progressive political engagement moving forward.
With a focus on hard-to-reach and potentially cynical Latinx voters in Arizona, Nevada, and Texas; Black voters in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina; and a secondary audience of young voters and white suburban women therein, this project had reach, repetition, and tested impact, the trinity of political persuasion.
They partnered with Swayable to test content, against the metrics of Presidential choice, mobilization potential, and emotional response. This continuous testing—done weekly to capture the quickly changing issue environment in 2020—resulted in real-time audience segmentation of each ad toward specific demographics that were then deployed to targeted states. To learn more about the scope and impact of their work read their 2020 Breakthrough Report and watch their short recap video that tells the story of what they learned and what’s next.
Looking Ahead:
The Cultural Engagement Lab has continued mobilization and engagement around high-stakes policy debates in 2021 and civic engagement leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. As a young organization working at the cutting edge of cultural strategy, their priorities include deep learning and dissemination of their learning to the field, followed by capacity building to put their learning this cycle into practice. That means:
Test harder-hitting ads with a more partisan message.
Increase broader distribution by testing influencer outreach and paid ads across multiple
platforms, experimenting to learn the most effective means of reaching our target audiences.
Apply the approach to issue advocacy, prioritizing policy campaigns that center around core areas of focus including climate, gender justice, immigration, and democracy.
Create core narratives that move audiences and persuade, with one focus being neutralizing fear-based messaging and mis-/disinformation.
Deepen their movement partnerships, iterating and learning together.
Increase their capacity to create state-specific content from one to three states.
WDN Action prioritizes investments in organizations like the Cultural Engagement Lab, which balances impact today with systemic change into the future. We invest in organizations that know what their constituencies need, in this case, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, because they are led by members of these communities. In a moment when the scale of the challenges we face is massive and growing by the day, organizations like the Cultural Engagement Lab and The Center for Cultural Power, which lay the groundwork for transformational change, are essential.