Diane Ocaranza

Professor Franklin
Course HD 497
24 October 2015
Elective Course-HD 475 Arts and Social Change
Arts for Social Change delivered a course experience, which becomes the epitome
of what its title stands for. When our professor asked the class, what is art to you? Most
of the class replied with similar answers, art is drawings, paintings, crafts, architecture,
sculptures, inventions and colors. The answers dealt with paintbrushes, rulers, and clay.
However when she asked me, I identified art as a form of expression, in which its
expression can be carried out by different mediums.
Art can be expressed through music, lyrics, poetry, spoken word, fashion,
bulletins, make-up, photography, floral arrangements, and much more. I also said that to
me people alone are a masterpiece of art. When I finished giving my answer my
classmates began to relate and became more aware of what are represents to them-us, and
how art can be used to as a tool to voice our inner thoughts, perceptions and beliefs on
different life issues.
Here our professor expands the meaning of art. She mentions that art can also be
used to evoke social change. Art can create political debates in society. Art can be an
avenue for public speaking, canvassing, and bringing forth attention for social inequality,
thus through art we can also fight for a just societyworld. When our professor
discussed art as being a tool for social change, we all crazed about it and saw art as much
more than a simple hobby or talent, we saw as an opportunity to fight for what we stand

for or wholeheartedly believe in. We saw art as a peaceful retaliation from all of us who
stand against societys status quo.
Moving forward, we each created a childrens book that depicted the art of
creating book that includes an anti-bias social justice message. This task at first presented
itself as intimidating because I thought, I am not an artist! However, after having
touched base with what art forms are, I decided I would focus more on the message I was
conveying to the class rather than the art work itself. The book I created expressed SES
inequality, privilege and disadvantage issues children of different demographics face on a
daily basis. With that said, creating this book really identifies with what I myself have
encountered as a student, and what others in the same or worse conditions as I have had
to deal with.
I can now say that I identify myself as an advocate for inner-city struggle, for SES
inequality, and for other social justice issues that go overlooked and unlearned while
enrolled in a biased education system. This class definitely served its purpose for my
personal learning experience, and I would recommend other students to take this class if
they want to engage in the anti-biased social justice movement.