169: Joni Doherty: ART IN ACTION Is Fueling Free Expression & Democracy
About this episode
Bill Cleveland interviews Joni Doherty about the role of artists in defending freedom of expression and democracy.
What happens when artists step forward not just to create, but to defend the freedom to create? In this opening episode of a new Art in Action series produced with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Bill Cleveland speaks with Joni Doherty, Senior Program Officer for Democracy and the Arts. Their conversation begins with a rediscovered 1964 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Dayton, Ohio, and unfolds into a powerful exploration of how artists today are confronting censorship, recovering buried histories, and expanding the civic imagination. As Doherty explains, the arts are not merely decoration for democracy—they are one of its most powerful engines. Through stories of collaboration between artists, poets, dancers, and community leaders in Dayton, the conversation reveals how creative work can become a living civic process, one that helps communities reflect on their past, confront their present, and imagine new futures. In this episode we explore: How an almost forgotten Martin Luther King Jr. speech sparked a multi—disciplinary arts movement in Dayton, Ohio. How artists are confronting censorship and cultural erasure by reclaiming hidden histories and expanding the frame of…
More episodes of ART IS CHANGE: Strategies & Skills for Activist Artists & Cultural Organizers
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- 173: ART IS CHANGE – ART IS RESISTANCE
- 172: Jordan Seaberry - What Use is Art Making When Freedom is Under Fire?
- 171: Artist Proof Studio - What Can We Learn From Activist Artists in South Africa
- 170: Is Community Based-art Making at the Heart of Cultural Democracy?
- 168: Arts Freedom Weather Report - The MAGA Squeeze Is Provoking Creative Resistance
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