This exhibition explores the powerful intersection of art, activism, and protest within the CalArts community. Over the years, CalArts has been a vibrant hub for acts of activism and transformative movements, many of which have been preserved in our Institute Archives.
Drawing from Special Collections, the Institute Archives, and beyond, this curated collection highlights how our community has used art to respond to and engage with the world around us. Through these works, we celebrate the enduring spirit of creative resistance and the profound role of art in driving change.

Artists' Books

Plight of Girl

Summary: In December 1968, 14 year old Dorothy Belle Young and her 11 year old sister Yvonne were arrested for using 'Profane language at school to white boys...

Author: Mariame Kaba

It's not a Hate Crime, It's white Supremacy

Summary: a Zine brought to you by Tea Bee & friends.

Author: Tea Bee

Big Brick Energy

Summary: For a year, members of Unity and Struggle studied the uprising by interviewing fifteen comrades in five cities, compiling news coverage from the same cities, and surveying official reports from local governments and police departments in seventeen cities nationwide.

Author: Unity and Struggle

No bad whores just bad laws

Summary: Yearbook style zine accounting for the activities of the Support Ho(s)e Collective, a self-described "small Leftist formation of sex workers (current and former) and our trusted co-conspirators based in Chicago and New York City.

Author: Support Ho(s)e Collective

Perpetual Care

Information and resources on fighting the criminalization of abortion in the United States. Includes names of abortion funds, legal assistance services, and independent clinics.

Author: J M C (Zinester)

Who is left ? Prison Abolition

Mariame Kaba and artist Nicholls Flynn collaborate on a minicomic on prison abolition, addressing questions like "What about bad people? What about rapists?" Kaba explains how those concerns are rooted in the fear of the other, providing information about the history of incarceration and policing, and using the specific example of the Bresha Meadows case..

Author: Mariame Kaba

Special Collections

Blueprint for counter education

Blueprint for counter education is one of the defining (but neglected) works of radical pedagogy of the Vietnam War era.

Author:

Maurice Robert Stein, Larry Miller, Eugenia Bell
Call Number: LC31 .S77 2016

Ai Weiwei

Author: Weiwei Ai
Call Number: N7349.A59 A4 2014b

The Art of Revolution

Author: Dugald Stermer ,Susan Sontag
Call Number: F1788 .S7

Journal for the protection of all beings. by AuthorsCity Lights Books( Publisher) James Tenney Collection.

Author: City Lights Books
Call Number: AP2 .J832

Diego Rivera : mural painting by Antonio Rodríguez. Diego Rivera.Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana.Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana.

Author: Antonio Rodríguez, Diego Rivera
Call Number: ND259.R5 R6313 1988

Posters

Institute Critique

Artist: Tuan Phan
Year: 2000

Exquisite Acts & Everyday Rebellion

Artist: Eileen Levinson, Roman Jaster, Teira Johnson and Clarissa Tossin
Year: 2007

CalArts Walkout

Artist: Mina Shoaib
Year: 2017

Kate Johnston: How To Be An Activist

Artist: Taimin Ahn
Year: 2019

Resist Fear Assist Love

Artist: Unknown
Year: Unknown

Stop The War

Artist: Unknown
Year: Unknown

The Trill is Gone

Artist: Unknown
Year: Unknown

Student Publications

The Big News

The Big News was a prominent student lead newspaper made in collaboration with the institute. Beginning in 1972, the publication released issues bi-monthly on a variety of topics including global politics, campus life and art. The publication was at the center of a number of controversies for its willingness to critique Calarts for actions that they felt went against its values.
Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1972-1973

The Big News

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1972-1973

Polvo

Polvo was a student publication produced in 1995 with the following mission statement: “When CalArts becomes disinterested in a medium constructed to voice concerns, and reduces contributions, a select few will construct, however inaccurate, a representative voice. Given the context of a community magazine, this voice will ultimately be perceived as the only one existing within that community.”

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1995

Rose

ROSE (Later renamed to CalArts Student Newspaper and The Press) was a short lived student lead newspaper that released its first issue in the fall of 1973. The contents of ROSE are diverse, however, there is an emphasis on opinion pieces by students regarding campus life, art and politics. Additionally, the publication contains works of creative writing and student resources.

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1973-1974

Solar Power

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1973-1974

The Big News

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1972-1973

The Big News

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 1972-1973

ALT

ALT Magazine was a Student Council publication that formed in 1988 in the wake of the dissolution of the long standing WALT magazine that published many issues throughout the 1980s. While the original publication primarily featured student artwork and interviews, this new iteration was distinctly less polished and highlighted work with more overtly political undertones.

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections

Year: 1991

Radical Politics: A Guide to Everyday Life

Radical Politics: A Guide to Everyday life was created by Mac Jude and Adam Bandrowski in a zinemaking class taught at CalArts. The publication was widely distributed throughout campus as a call to action.

Collection: California Institute of the Arts Publications Collections
Year: 2019

Videos

Just a Minute…. TV Works (excerpts)

In post-election 1984, the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts asked people all over the U.S. to submit 60-second spots to a 'highly irregular videotape magazine.' Selections were made by former CalArts faculty John Baldessari, Catherine Lord, and Chip Lord and compiled onto a 46-minute tape. Assembled here are 15 of the spots which have politics at their forefront, with video artists confronting issues of imperialism, patriarchy, racial inequality, and economic exploitation. Artists include: Jeffrey L. Peters, Ben Chase, Peter Mitchell, Sylvia Salazar Simpson, Wendy Geller, Nancy Buchanan, Mindy Faber, Janet Soderberg, Laura Silagi, Suzanne Siegel, Deborah Krall-Cohen, Mathew Geller, Stuart Bender, A. Staples, G. Gofbarg, Renée C. Arrington, Michael Roper, and Daniel Grossman.

Artist: Various
Duration: 16 Minutes
Year: 1985

Watts Eyewitness News (excerpt)

Students from the Watts Towers Art Center in collaboration with the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP) interview artist Toni Love, discussing some of the political valences and impact of her work.

Artist: Various
Duration: 4 Minutes
Year: 1992

The Slush

Newsreel footage and old television shows are combined

Artist: George Bayer
Duration: 3 Minutes
Year: 1982

Flag Controversy : Flag Flap

Two news reports on a controversial 1989 installation by CalArts student Adam Greene in solidarity with Chicago artist Dread Scott. The installations involved the American flag being placed on the floor with the suggestion that visitors use their freedom of expression to write in a ledger on the wall, only accessible by stepping on the flag. This led to local veterans stealing the flag and delivering it to a local sheriff’s station. The news reports feature interviews with CalArts students and administrators, veterans, and Greene himself.

Artist: Adam Greene
Duration: 5 Minutes
Year: 1989

CRISIS

A music video that juxtaposes a satirical re-performance of a patriotic tirade with found footage images of state repression and war, using experimental image processing and TV studio techniques.

Artists: Simeon Soffer, Mark Brooks, Mark Bement, George Bayer, Joseph Yacoe, Takeshi Kimi
Duration: 6 minutes
Year: Unknown