Create+Engage: A 2024 Community Series Fusing Art and Activism

A creative antidote to apathy.

Mar 01, 2024

In March of 2020 I started hosting a free, weekly community session devoted to creativity. The idea was simple: gather together online for an hour of creativity. It was in response to the start of the global pandemic, something to offer while we were all in lockdown.

The series was called Creative Fuel, named after my newsletter. Eventually, those community sessions grew into something larger and we expanded into Creative Fuel Collective, a platform for workshop, series, and programming centered around creativity.

After four years, those weekly sessions have come to a close. But that ending opens up the door to a new initiative that we’re launching today: Create+Engage.

Some of my favorite weekly Creative Fuel sessions were the ones in which the outside world felt the most difficult. We would come together and use art and creativity as a way to channel what we were feeling into something that felt more hopeful.

Coming into 2024 I wanted to capture some of that energy, and use art as a catalyst for staying engaged as we work our way towards the November elections.

I reached out to

Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman

and Marta Hanson, both people who I have met through creative channels. They each have extensive experience in civic engagement, advocacy, and activism work, and they’re also both passionate about the importance of art and creativity in our everyday lives.

How might arts and culture be part of bridge-building? How might we use our creativity to shape the future of our communities?

- Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman

Together we have put together Create+Engage, a multiple-part series of free virtual sessions and hands-on workshops with invited guest speakers and artists to deep-dive on specific topics of civic engagement.

I asked Anjelika and Marta why they felt excited about this endeavor.

"I have been curious to explore: How might arts and culture be part of bridge-building? How might we use our creativity to shape the future of our communities?” says Anjelika. “Through Create+Engage, I hope we develop a stronger sense of agency related to civic engagement in our communities.”

Marta offered up the reminder of how important creativity is for showing up in our everyday lives. "Creative practices can nudge us to get curious, make space for fresh possibilities, and explore new ways of engaging with the world around us,” she says. “It's my hope that Create+Engage workshops feel like a breath of fresh air, infusing inspiration with meaningful, manageable action.”

Through these sessions and additional planned programming (we’ll be doing a month of creative action in September), we hope to bring people together in a dynamic space to inspire creativity while engaging in meaningful action leading up to the November 2024 U.S. elections.

These virtual sessions will be hosted on Zoom every month between now and the election, and will focus on using art and creativity as a way to stay engaged. Consider it like a creative workshop that’s an antidote to apathy.

To kick us off this month we have Sarah Shay Mirk of

Mirk Work

and Christina Appleberry for Micro-Media: The Power of Zines on March 13th.

In a world flooded with news and media, it can be hard to pay attention, hard to focus on the issues that impact us. I love the idea of zines as a form of micro-media, a way to focus attention and scope. This workshop is just for that, and we will be making our own zines!

Micro-Media: The Power of Zines, March 13, 5-6:30pm PT. Hosted on Zoom.

These sessions will be free and accessible for all participants. It’s really important to me to be able to offer programming like this and to keep it open for everyone. Creative work is labor and should be compensated, and all the workshop speakers will be paid an honorarium. Paying subscribers to this newsletter are helping to make that happen!

If you want to help support, here are a few ways.

1. BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER TO CREATIVE FUEL

You get access to seasonal editions and other forms of creative inspiration, as well as an invite to upcoming virtual studio sessions (more on that soon). A portion of paid subscriptions will also be donated every month to an organization chosen by the workshop speakers.

2. MAKE A FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION

You can also support with a financial contribution in any amount. These financial contributions go to paying speaker honorariums, as well as helping us put together our month of creative action later in September.

Support

3. SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND

Know someone who might enjoy this series? Want to bring a friend to the first creative workshop to make a zine with you? Pass this along!

I know that it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of politics, and the general global state of affairs, but I always believe that creative action helps—both in keeping us engaged and inspired, and for connecting us. When you don’t know what else to do, making art is always a good place to begin.

We’re looking forward to launching this series and our first session later this month, and I hope that you’ll be able to join!

-Anna