From painting to music and more, art has played a vital role in political movements for decades, providing a platform for expression and a method for spreading awareness. On campus, Whitman students put together their passions for art and activism through clubs, protests and student publications.  

One student combining art and activism is sophomore Katherine Finger, who has participated in activism with Whitman’s Students for Justice in Palestine [SJP]. SJP uses chalk, posters and performances to convey their messaging. Finger talked about goals for the effect their art will have on students, faculty and administration at Whitman.

“What I hope people take away from what I’m writing on the sidewalk, the posters that I’m making, the banners or the laying on the ground, is that people reflect: Why does this bother me? Why do I react in the way that I do?…  I want people to think about it for a minute. There isn’t consciousness on this campus about a lot of the things happening [here] and around the world,” Finger said. “I just want people to be aware.”

In addition to spreading awareness, art brings emotion into what could alternatively be simply factual. 

“You can say all the things you want, but art goes deeper. What you’re doing has meaning, not just what you’re saying,” said Finger.

Finger discussed SJP’s die-ins last year, where students wore bloodied clothing and laid on the ground like corpses. 

“These people are lying in your way wearing bloodied shirts,” Finger said. “You see that and you think, what if these were real bodies?”

Finger said it’s common for movements like this — that are focused on performance art — to receive criticism that they are performative and unproductive.

”Chalking, putting up signs, laying on the ground, all of it is a performance. But that performance serves the purpose of getting a message across. [It is] disrupting… [and] attributing something beyond words to a movement,” Finger said.

Another platform for students to use art as protest is a zine that floats around campus called the Undercurrent. Founder and editor Olivia Jensen ‘28 described it:

“The Undercurrent is an independent opinion publication… [It is] open to anyone in the community,” Jensen said. “Our goal for the Undercurrent is to foster debate and expression, even if it is controversial. We want to get people engaging with each other and [with] what is happening on and off campus.”

Jensen said that not only is art effective at spreading awareness, but also at chronicling modern developments, she told The Wire about her research in Penrose Library’s archives. 

“[I] spent some time looking into divestment movements at Whitman, and it was really interesting to see student pieces written in the Pioneer about the movement to use divestment as a protest strategy against South African apartheid. There is a lot we can learn from the students who came before us, and a lot that we can pass on to future generations.”

Matthew Reynolds, Whitman professor of Art History, teaches a class called “Art Since 1945” which discusses the role art has played in the last century. 

One topic discussed is the AIDS crisis and the movement that came out of it in the 1980s and 90s called ACT UP, which used rallies, education and art to promote LGBTQ+ rights and reduce the effects of HIV/AIDS. The movement’s iconic symbol was a pink triangle on a black background with the words “silence=death.” 

Reynolds says that the pink triangle was appropriated from Nazi Germany, where LGBTQ+ people were forced to wear one on their chest. A reclamation of this symbol was powerful not only in helping LGBTQ+ people come together as a community, but also in calling attention to the AIDS crisis and invoking participation in the movement from the general public. This kind of creativity and symbolism pushed the movement forward. 

“[The ACT UP movement] pushed our culture to acknowledge and accept homosexuality in a way that it had not before… [that] we’re all part of the same society and… the closet needs to be a thing of the past. I think [the movement] was very effective,” Reynolds said.

“Art,” Reynolds said, “helps people understand an issue in a different way, often in a more immediate and urgent way, than if they were reading about it… It’s another tool in the toolbox. When you’re angry or feel undervalued or dismissed, you need all the tools available to communicate the reasons why you’re feeling those kinds of emotions. Art can be very effective at doing that.”

On the surface, movements like ACT UP might not appear to be driven by art, Reynolds emphasized that some kind of art is always present in activism. 

“[SJP’s] activities were informed by theater, by art, by media… I think one of the things that made their protests more visible was the kind of creative energy that went into them,” Reynolds said.

So, writing, symbolism, performance — all of it can be art, and is art, given that that “creative energy” is present.

Jensen elaborated on this, saying that some art can exist as a form of protest simply by being created.

“Art is never neutral or apolitical,” Jensen said. “There are many ways that art can be ‘used’ as protest, but for marginalized and oppressed groups, art itself is protest.” 

Jensen mentioned the painting by Palestinian artist Friras Thabet, currently on display in the “To Make Us Free” exhibit in the Sheehan Gallery. 

“Thabet’s act of artistic creation under the occupation of a settler-colonial regime seeking the vanishment of their culture is an act of protest. It is saying “we are here, and this is who we are.” These works will live on for years, hopefully long past you or I,” Jensen said.

Reynolds mentioned two other artists whose work could be considered protest. 

One is Brazilian artist Lygia Pape, who connected art with psychology to create a kind of art therapy amid Brazil’s military dictatorship.

“Interested in psychology and understanding of the self, she developed a number of pieces and performances in which people are exploring the boundaries of what it means to be human. It was a less direct protest of Brazilian authoritarianism, but still effective,” Reynolds said. 

Another is Coco Fusco, who created a series of illustrated newspapers reflecting on the current United States administration called the Siren. 

“[It] chronicles many of the horrific things they are doing, while also trying to make sense of it,” Reynolds said. “It’s meant to mimic a lot of news media, but call attention to the ways in which the Trump administration is doing damage to the country… it’s urgent and is trying to reach as many people as it can through that cartoon approach.”

As students passionate about social issues, art will help us reach our goals. Taking advantage of our ability to create art is essential, Jensen said. 

“Freedom of expression is very important to [the Undercurrent], given what is happening under the Trump administration, particularly on campuses, and how we feel the Whitman administration has responded to student activism in recent years,” Jensen said.

Reynolds urges students to use their creative freedom. 

 “Do it. And don’t worry about whether it’s good or bad… if you put your passion and your emotion into the thing that you make, whatever it is, hopefully that will be legible to your audience. and that can be an effective tool for persuasion.”

There will never be a movement in history that art is not involved in. 

“Activism without art is nothing,” Finger said.

On Whitman’s campus and beyond, students are engaging creatively with protest, often inspired by the social movements of the past.