For the 2020 Election, youth showed up… but where is their art?

PLAN YOUR VOTE IS A 2020 VISUAL ARTS INITIATIVE FROM VOTE.ORG THAT HARNESSES THE POWER OF ART TO PROMOTE AND ENCOURAGE CITIZENS TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE. (Their) PUBLIC LIBRARY OF VOTING ADVOCACY ARTWORKS IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE TO DOWNLOAD AND POST.” Artist: AMARYLLIS DEJESUS MOLESKI - @wildhomegirl

Earlier this week, I was creating a learning module for an ITAC Think Tank session from September 2019 titled “Teaching Artists - Next Gen”. In the session, several university students from Edinburgh College in Scotland were discussing their perspective on the role of today’s teaching artists. The discussion, guided by the overarching questions from ITAC4 in 2018, was centered around concepts of community, identity, and activism. 

In their reflections, one student said that “all art encompasses activism”. Another said, “If it wasn't for my art, I wouldn't have been inspired to get involved in activism. I felt like through creating art, it's how I discovered a lot of social justice.” Another compared activism in the arts to the ways in which you activate your own truth or path through life. 

Though they said these words over a year ago - though they were words said by students who lived an ocean away from my home in the United States, I couldn’t help but recognize their resonance in November 2020. 

Whether it be through campaigns to educate and encourage participation in the census, through movements to celebrate the vote by encouraging musicians to play at polling places, through art contests which rally the youth vote, artists have leaned into the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 to not only keep making art, but to make meaning through their art, either for themselves or their communities.  

Organizations like the Center for Artistic Activism and When We All Vote, as well as individual artists like the Haas Brothers, Prabal Gurung, and Aiweiwei, were among the dozens of organizations and individuals who came together to support voter registration and participation across the United States, especially in locations with tight races. 

It was in learning about and admiring the outputs of these efforts and considering the words of the teaching artists from Scotland that I realized a surprising gap in participation: youth. 

Aside from the occasional contest and the efforts of individuals like those highlighted in my colleague Jordan’s blog series “Artivism”, it’s been hard to find instances in which youth were supported in creating art for the 2020 election… which doesn’t make much sense. 

According to Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), youth (ages 18-29) voter turnout increased from 42-44% of eligible voters in 2016 to 50-52% of eligible voters in 2020. While this increase was not mirrored in overall election turnout (likely because turnout was historically high this year), it is possible to posit that “youth voters were crucial in securing Biden’s performance in key states” like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In Georgia, black youth were particularly responsible for Biden’s run to flip the state and, similarly, the run-off election for both senate seats. 

To put it plainly, youth showed up! 

There is tremendous energy, passion, and drive among youth - especially youth of color - to realize political change, so why aren’t we making space for them to motivate and inspire their peers and their elders? If we are making that space, why aren’t we celebrating their actions as loudly as we would those of established artists? 

Funders, program directors, and organizational leaders need to celebrate and cultivate the skills and will of youth artists to achieve change. 

For those who are civically engaged with their arts - let’s celebrate it. For those who are figuring out their pathway to applying their creativity for social change - let’s support them. The social impact of arts and cultural education is inherent in the work, but our allieship as adults is not. This is our work to do.

If there are organizations or individuals out there who are already doing this work and making space for youth, please send them our way. We’d love to spotlight them and share how youth art and activism are being championed.