Art IS Change: Want Proof That Art Makes Real Change? Start Here

Bill Cleveland: 00:00:06

Hey, there. Welcome to the podcast formerly known as Change the Story, Change the World. And appropriately. In this episode, we'll explore what that means.

Can a podcast name change help us spark a deeper, more powerful understanding of the role of artists in shaping society?

From the center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Art is Change, a chronicle of art and social change where activist artists and cultural organizers share the skills and strategies they need to thrive as creative community leaders. My name is Bill Cleveland. In this episode, we'll explore why we hope that Art is Change isn't just a.

A rebrand, but rather a strategic move to make America's activist artists and cultural organizers more visible and more impactful.

We'll also remind ourselves of the thousands of artists across the world who are using creativity to encounter dominant, damaging narratives and reclaim public imagination. And as always, we'll share real stories of transformation.

From Mosaic filled lots in Philly to clown led protests in Serbia, showing how art and actively reshapes communities. Before we start, I need to introduce you to today's guest. His name is Billy Rio. Or at least that's what I call him.

To say that we're close would be an understatement. This is because I interact with him almost every day in the mirror in my bathroom.

Billy Rio is the compassionate skeptic that sits on my shoulder at times when I'm trying to figure out if I'm moving in the right direction. In this conversation, he'll be challenging me not only to make sense of our podcast name change, but also its core mission. Billy?

Billy Rio: 00:02:07

Yeah?

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:09

Say hello.

Billy Rio: 00:02:10

Hello.

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:12

Okay. Where do you want to start?

Billy Rio: 00:02:15

What do you mean?

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:17

What do you mean? What do you mean? You. You know why we're here, right?

Billy Rio: 00:02:22

Yeah. Well, you got this podcast that I know matters a lot to you and your audience, and you made these changes. And you want to know what I think?

I get that. But why me?

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:37

Come on. You know you're my resident skeptic. Where else would I go?

Billy Rio: 00:02:43

All right, I can do my curmudgeonly thing, but before I do, if you could tell me why you're going through all this rigmarole, it would be helpful.

I mean, you got nearly four years and over 100 episodes under your belt with the change the story, change the whatever, and you got people out there who listen. Why mess with it?

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:04

Well, it's pretty simple.

If you were out there sitting on your couch with your iPhone in your lap, and you had a hankering to listen to a podcast about artists saving the world, how in the hell would you know where to find it?

Billy Rio: 00:03:19

I don't know. Google, I guess.

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:22

Exactly. But Change the story is sure as hell not the first thing you're going to be typing.

Billy Rio: 00:03:30

So that's your whole argument, that your podcast title isn't search engine optimized?

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:36

No, not just that. I. I mean, yeah, partly, but it's more than a tech fix. It's about clarity.

If someone is looking for a show about how artists are out there right now shaping real world change, change the story, change the world doesn't exactly scream that. It's poetic, sure, but not clear.

Billy Rio: 00:04:03

So you're trading poetry for an algorithm?

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:08

Not trading. Translating art is change. Says what we do. Simple, direct, and most importantly, findable.

Billy Rio: 00:04:20

Sounds a bit like a bumper sticker. What happened to storytelling? Wasn't that the whole thing? Changing the story?

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:27

It still is. But here's the thing. In the US we're at a critical point of a giant story shift that has been going on for years.

The rising story is that the people and institutions who have been running the place for years have been ripping you off. And we're here to change that.

Billy Rio: 00:04:47

Yeah. And it's not just the magas that are thinking that.

Bill Cleveland: 00:04:51

Right? I know. I think a lot of people on both sides feel left behind.

And a lot of people also realize that the response, you know, that those red state people are horrible and we're saving democracy doesn't cut it. And unfortunately, I think the people who are now in charge of the ship of state have a better understanding of the power of story.

Not just as propaganda, but as tools, as maps, as lifelines, Anti authoritarians need to recognize this and provide a coherent alternative. That's the path we're trying to forge with art is change.

Billy Rio: 00:05:31

Now we're getting somewhere. Go on.

Bill Cleveland: 00:05:34

Well, think about it. Stories are how we make sense of the chaos. They give shape to our pain, our joy, our resistance.

And for artists, the ones I talk to, story isn't window dressing. It's infrastructure. A way to hold communities together when the world feels like it's cracking apart.

Billy Rio: 00:05:55

I'll grant you that. But still, you've been doing this for four years. Isn't this just you scratching an itch?

Bill Cleveland: 00:06:04

No, it's me sharpening the point. These conversations, well, they've confirmed all the things I've learned. Working with communities struggling with conflict and working in prisons.

You know that artists, cultural organizers, storytellers, makers, they're not just decorating the movements, they're helping to drive them. They're reshaping reality. One frame, one mural, one Ritual at a time. That's the story I want people to find.

Billy Rio: 00:06:36

And you think art is change gets them there?

Bill Cleveland: 00:06:39

I do. It's not just the title. It's a declaration. It says, if you're looking for proof that art matters, that it makes a difference, start here.

If you're looking for a way to reveal the damage being done out there in a way that will capture people's attention, start here. If you're looking for a way to begin healing from the damage, start here.

If you're looking for a way to have a civil conversation about zoning or garbage collection with your grumpy neighbors, start here. And if you're looking for a way to find and celebrate what you have in common with those same neighbors, start here.

Billy Rio: 00:07:19

All right, that's more compelling. Still a little earnest for my taste.

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:26

You wouldn't be my skeptic if you. You weren't at least a little grumpy.

Billy Rio: 00:07:30

Fair enough. Just promise me that you're not slapping on a new name and calling it Evolution.

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:37

No chance. This is about alignment, making the name match the mission. And that mission is clearer than ever. Art is change, huh?

Billy Rio: 00:07:50

You keep saying that, but I can't help wondering, what about the old mission? Wasn't it always about changing the story?

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:59

It still is. In fact, this shift that we're in makes that more important than ever. I think it's obvious. The authoritarian story has three parts.

One, our house has been wrecked. Then we're gonna fix it. And finally, we're building a new place that's going to be one way better.

And the companion story is that you're the victim in all this, and the perpetrators are very easy to see and easy to find, and we're going to get rid of them, and then everything will be okay. That's an old, old story, and it's a powerful story.

Billy Rio: 00:08:37

All right, how Bite. Talk to me about this power of story you keep circling. Make me care again.

Bill Cleveland: 00:08:47

Okay, think about this. Everything we do, everything we believe, every truth we cling to, it's all wrapped in stories.

Stories are how we make sense of what's possible, of who we are, of who we think the others are. They're like software running in the background, shaping every choice, every system, every. Every conflict.

Billy Rio: 00:09:11

So stories are code.

Bill Cleveland: 00:09:14

Exactly. And here's the kicker. Most of us didn't write that code. It was passed to us, inherited, absorbed, sometimes whispered, sometimes screamed.

And here's where it gets tricky. Stories can get hijacked and weaponized.

Billy Rio: 00:09:32

You mean like propaganda?

Bill Cleveland: 00:09:34

Yes, but not just the loud stuff. The outrageous headlines. Sometimes it's the quiet stories that do the most damage.

The ones that tell you, hey, you're not enough, or that some people belong and others don't, and that change isn't possible if those people are still around. Those stories get embedded in policies, in institutions, in the air we breathe.

Billy Rio: 00:10:02

Okay, that's heavier than I expected.

Bill Cleveland: 00:10:07

But here's the good news. Stories can change. And when they do, people change, communities change, culture shifts.

Billy Rio: 00:10:16

That sounds idealistic.

Bill Cleveland: 00:10:20

It's also reality. Think about the civil rights movement or MeToo, or the truth telling reclamation of Native American history. These aren't just movements.

They're narrative revolutions. They challenge dominant stories and replace them with new ones. Ones that make room for justice and dignity and complexity.

And, you know, they have power because they've generated so much pushback. That's a big part of what we're dealing with today.

Billy Rio: 00:10:50

So you're saying that stories are kind of like cultural operating systems?

Bill Cleveland: 00:10:57

That's exactly what I'm saying.

And the activist artists and cultural organizers, the creative change agents I talk to on the show, they're the coders, the remixers, the myth makers.

They crack open old narratives and seed new ones through murals, music, poetry, theater, memes, movement and ritual, and through the way they approach what people see as intractable property, which many artists see as juicy opportunities.

Billy Rio: 00:11:27

And that's what this podcast is about. It always was.

Bill Cleveland: 00:11:32

Yes. Change the Story, Change the World wasn't just a catchy title. It was, I guess you'd call it a thesis.

The work these artists do, it rewires how people see the world and their place in it. And if you change that, you can change behavior and belief and policy and systems and culture. And that's what we've always shared.

Art is change just shifts the sign on the podcast storefront from the theory to the practice, from the thesis to the real outcomes and real change that are happening in communities every day.

Billy Rio: 00:12:13

You know, Bill, that's a big, big claim. I know there's a lot of research. Yeah, but I mean, what are you adding to that? What's the show adding that hasn't already been said?

Bill Cleveland: 00:12:27

You know, I spent my life working in places where conflict lives, prisons, conflict zones, struggling communities, places where stories aren't just entertainment, their survival tools.

I've seen firsthand how narrative frames people's understanding of right and wrong and us and them, safety and threat, brain science, sociology, psychology, they all confirm what people in struggle have always known. That those simplified stories, those easy stories give people comfort. And they also often give Us, someone to blame.

Billy Rio: 00:13:10

Sounds like a recipe for manipulation.

Bill Cleveland: 00:13:13

Exactly. And it works. Especially when the world feels overwhelming. Simple stories sell.

Turn on the news, we're served up villains and heroes every hour on the hour. A story that says you're the victim and they're the enemy is very seductive. Especially if you're hurting. Especially if you're scared.

Billy Rio: 00:13:38

So you're saying propaganda works. Got it. How does anyone counter that? How do you counter that? With an interview show?

Bill Cleveland: 00:13:50

Nope, with work. Real work. And then we do our small part by helping share that counter narrative rooted in truth, experience and lived relationships.

Stories that aren't piped in from the outside, but grown within a community.

Billy Rio: 00:14:12

I don't know. That's too abstract.

Bill Cleveland: 00:14:15

Let me make it concrete. There's Lily Ye, a Chinese American artist in Philadelphia. Years ago, community called Germantown.

She saw a syringe strewn lot that the people in the community really feared. Everyone avoided it. She claimed it. With color, with mosaics. She invited neighbors to co create.

Even the local guy running the drug market there became her collaborator. That lot not only turned into a sanctuary, the community's fingerprints were in the tiles.

And that changed how the community saw that place and themselves. In essence, that changed the story.

And over the next 20 years, the community imagination, sparked by that little park, spread to the transformation of vacant lots and abandoned buildings and institutions in the surrounding 40 blocks to become a legendary place called the Village of Arts and Humanities.

Billy Rio: 00:15:23

Okay, but that's art on the ground, not a podcast.

Bill Cleveland: 00:15:28

The podcast shares these stories, spreads them, shows people what's possible. Here's another. Serbia under Milosevic.

During mass protests, the regime infiltrated with plainclothes clothes to stir violence and discredit the movement. But artists flipped the switch. Protesters showed up in costumes, firefighter costumes, nurse costumes, clown costumes.

And the real infiltrators dressed like regular folks so they would blend in, stuck out like sore thumbs. The violence never came. The regime's story, it was exposed and deflated, at least in that moment.

Billy Rio: 00:16:07

That's clever and bold.

Bill Cleveland: 00:16:10

And here's one more. In Appalachia in Kentucky, a project called Performing Our Future, part of Apple Shop.

They partnered with skeptics in small communities, the fire chiefs, small business owners.

They listened and listened and learned about what mattered most to folks like the fire chief, who cared deeply about the lack of community, identity and place to gather. And they turned his fire hall into a concert venue and a gathering place. They helped a local woman with an impossible dream launch a bakery.

People who'd once seen artists as outsiders became collaborators they rewrote what art could mean in their community and in the process helped redefine community not as an idea, but as a living, breathing thing.

Billy Rio: 00:17:03

So what you're saying, it's not just storytelling, it's story making together. And your podcast is part of getting the story heard, right?

Bill Cleveland: 00:17:14

Yes. Art is Change isn't just a title, it's a truth and a challenge.

Billy Rio: 00:17:22

All right, I'll admit it. You've got something here. Just don't expect me to say it's perfect.

Bill Cleveland: 00:17:28

Ah, I wouldn't dream of it, since we both know there's no such thing. Thanks for stopping by, Billy, and thanks to you listeners for your time and attention.

It means a lot to us, and what you think about what we're up to here means a lot too. So drop us a line@csacartandcommunity.com also pass the word about Art is Change to your friends and colleagues.

This episode also made mention of three of our previous guests, Lily Ye, Diana Milosevic from Serbia, and Ben Fink from performing Our Future in Appalachia. Links to these shows will be in our show notes. Art is Change is a production of the center for the Study of Art and Community.

Our new theme and soundscape comes from the stupendous musical imagination of Judy Munsen. Our effects come from freesound.com and our inspiration comes from the eternal presence of the spirit of UKE 235

Thanks again for listening, and remember always to stay well, do good, and spread the good word.