Arts, Culture, and Socialism
Study Group
January 15 - March 26, 2026
*Please note: All Creative Disruptors Journeys of only for leaders who identify as a person of the global majority / BIPOC*
Journey Description
This 6-week virtual study group invites artists, culture workers, and organizers to explore the intersections of art, socialism, and collective liberation. Each week includes political study, creative dialogue, and visionary thinking that centers care, justice, and cultural power. We will examine how art has been used as a tool for resistance and collective transformation. Topics include revolutionary aesthetics, cultural organizing, alternatives to capitalist systems, and creative visions for liberated futures. This is a political education space grounded in creativity and community. We are here to disrupt and build.
Who is this for? This journey is for artists, cultural workers, educators, organizers, and community-rooted creatives who are ready to explore how art and culture can disrupt capitalism, deepen political education, and build liberatory structures grounded in care, solidarity, and collective imagination.
Outcomes:
Define and discuss socialism, culture, and creative resistance through a liberatory and anti-capitalist lens
Analyze how systems of power shape cultural production and explore alternatives rooted in care, solidarity, and justice
Reflect on their own creative lineage and use art as a tool for political education and collective action
Imagine and design cooperative or community-centered models of cultural work
Create a final artistic offering that articulates their vision for cultural liberation
Session Breakdown:
Session 1 – What Is Socialism? What Is Culture?
Define key terms: socialism, culture, ideology
Discuss cultural power, community storytelling, and shared language
Introduce the role of creative resistance in social change
Session 2– Revolutionary Aesthetics
Study revolutionary art and aesthetics from global movements
Analyze posters, murals, and performance as political tools
Question: Who is art for?
Session 3 – Culture, Capitalism, and the Art Industrial Complex
Examine how capitalism shapes the nonprofit arts sector
Explore artwashing, labor exploitation, and institutional control
Introduce critiques of philanthropy and professionalization in the arts
Session 4 – Black, Indigenous, Queer, and Feminist Socialisms
Lift up liberatory frameworks rooted in intersectionality
Discuss care, mutual aid, pleasure, and abolitionist art practices
Center creative labor from historically marginalized communities
Session 5 – Art as Commons and Cultural Co-Governance
Explore cooperatives, mutual aid, and cultural democracy
Analyze models for creative sharing beyond ownership and extraction
Imagine new ways to govern cultural spaces together
Session 6 – Future Visioning and Final Offerings
Reflect on learning, transformation, and shared values
Share creative declarations
Celebrate collective power and next steps for disruption