Applications of Art in Activism
What utility does art provide beyond individual healing, expression, and social understanding? How might we best learn from and act on such gains in perspective, empathy, and insight?
Art and creative expression maintain a cherished role in society for their ability to capture culture, beauty, and meaning. They spark our imaginations. But they can also move us to action.
Many of the individuals highlighted in this exhibition also applied artistic and creative methods through aging-related advocacy and education. Some used their artwork to highlight human rights issues and to take a political stance on topics of national conversation. Others advocated for greater support of the arts through federal funding and social service programming, testifying before political bodies to argue for the utility of art as a mode of social connection, healing, and community building. Others used creative methods in their teaching and research, working to educate future social service and medical providers on the needs of older populations and evidence-based strategies for supporting them. Many of their paths also crossed, demonstrating the closeknit world of aging-focused advocacy. For as Vivian Rodgers presented on Elizabeth Layton’s artwork during a White House Conference on Aging, Mildred Harkness was in attendance and had already collected newspaper clippings on the artist. Harkness would later cross paths with Trudy Cross, who was promoting social programming ideas for seniors, while Dr. Shirley Patterson used creative methods to educate social work students on supporting older clients and carried out research on senior civic engagement at the University of Kansas.
This advocacy work is relevant to all individuals. As we are all either older people or individuals who will become older people. What services do you require or envision requiring? What kind of life do you wish to create? What kind of world would you like to live in? What systemic barriers stand in your way that are worth questioning, critiquing, and reimagining?
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Elizabeth Layton engaged many topics through her artwork, including tackling many timely social issues. She depicted herself in the roles of notable women figures, such as Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah’s wife, and Whistler’s mother, arguing for their voice, perspective, and agency. Many of her later pieces also took on a more explicit political message, including many that were included in advocacy pamphlets, postcards, and organization newsletters, including the three pieces reproduced here in various formats. Her own descriptions of the pieces are included below.
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Censored flyer, 1989
Call Number: RH MS 1278, Box 2, Folder 15
Of this piece, Layton states: “This old woman is bound and gagged and can no longer draw. Her principles have been X-ed out. I guarantee you she feels like a zilch. In the background, from top left, counter-clockwise; Interstate 70 billboard art by Tillie Woodward, of a Nazi soldier hanging two Russian resistance fighters, which was censored and plastered over June 5, 1985; the Goddess of Liberty falling broken in China's Tiananmen Square; a pile of the old woman's drawings torn up and censored; quotation, "The first exception (to the First Amendment) will not be the last"--Ira Glasser; sheaf of CLASSIFIED papers beginning and ending with LIED".”
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Rightfully Proud pamphlet, 1988
With piece titled Remembering Names, 1988
Call Number: RH MS 1538, Box 8, Folder 13
Layton first became interested in early waves of the gay and lesbian rights movement in the U.S. in the 1970’s. During the AIDS epidemic, she found herself feeling moved to be of assistance in whatever way possible, including supporting several charity efforts by contributing several of her original drawings to be sold at auctions.
In the image included in this activist pamphlet, Layton envisions herself embroidering a new block for the AIDS memorial quilt with other quilt blocks covering the globe. Layton created the piece in an effort to support the work of the Good Samaritan Home which was providing hospice services to individuals dying with AIDS and experiencing significant financial difficulties. Of the piece, she stated, “I wanted to do something warm, empathetic, and gentle.”
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Advocate’s Handbook, Kansas Department on Aging,1994
With piece titled Old Age Advocates, 1985
Call Number: RH MS 1548, Box 11, Folder 20
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Vivian Rodger’s White House Conference on Aging report, 1981
Call Number: RH MS 1278, Box 1, Folder 18
In addition to Layton’s work having direct political messages, many professionals drew on her inspiring story and lived experience to argue for the importance of supporting arts-based programming in the lives of older citizens.
One such individual was Vivian Rodgers who first reached out to Elizabeth Layton in 1981. Rodgers had previously founded and was serving as the Director of the University of Kansas Adult Life Resource Center, supporting non-traditional students in pursuing life-long education, including older adults. Rodgers was a strong advocate for adult education and enrichment programs. During the 1981 White House Conference on Aging, she shared a report citing Layton’s work and arguing for the importance of increased support for community-based programs to provide opportunities for civic engagement, volunteerism, continuing education, and social programming for older adults.
Rodgers and Layton went on to have a decades long friendship and consistent correspondence, connecting over their shared interests and with Layton often providing updates and small sketches of her current drawing projects.
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Program Ideas for Seniors, 1992
Call Number: RH MS 1548, Box 4, Folder 17
Advocates also shared resources with one another to further their shared interests. This booklet was authored by Trudy Cross who sent the resource to Mildred Harkness after they met during a conference on aging in Arkansas. The booklet includes hundreds of ideas for activity programming that service providers could apply in their work with older adults, including many arts-based and creative projects.
The language used to describe the book's audience is notable in that it is not written for just any residential facility administrator but intended for those who share the author’s values of patience, imagination, and enthusiasm. In operating within often ageist social discourses in which older clients might be ignored, talked down to, or treated like children, advocates found ways to use language to find likeminded allies. For Cross, this included speaking to the values and motivations of other professionals and arguing that the mode of an activity matters less than the manner and attitude in which it is offered.
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First and second: Aging, Strength, and Creativity Revisited, 1978
Call Number: PP 607, Box 2, Folder 26
Third: Photo of Twente and Patterson, not dated
Call Number: PP 607, Box 2, Folder 1
Educating practitioners is also a form of applying art and creativity through action. This article was published in the Journal of Social Welfare in 1978 by Professor Shirley Patterson who taught a course on practice with older adults to Master’s in Social Work students preparing for direct practice. This piece draws inspiration from a prior publication by the same name, penned by Patterson's long-time mentor, Esther Twente in 1965. Patternson sought to echo and demonstrate Twente’s argument that older adults hold an innate and powerful capacity for creative expression. In her article, Patterson argues that: “through societal insensitivity, ignorance, and impoverishment the process of growing old has often been made excruciatingly humiliating, painful, debilitating, and isolating.” In this context she asks, “What kind of strength and courage does it take for the old in this society to survive, much less to risk self-revelation through creative expression?”
After a brief introduction citing relevant prior research, Patterson’s article then presents brief vignettes of several older adults living in the Larwence, Kansas area who were interviewed by graduate students in her practice course, resulting in many brief anecdotes, poems, and accompanying drawings. The vignettes draw on the wisdom of elders, depicting the raw emotions and complexity of their aging experience. The pieces also capture the reflections and growth of the interviewing students, illustrating the potential of expressing aging stories through artistic means as well as applying creative approaches as a form of education.