Art in many forms can impact changes in society. The Baruch College ART-A-THON included an event called “ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE: EXPERIMENTS IN COMMUNITY” where artists performed or showcased their work to the audience in order to portray that art can indeed have an impact on society. For me, this was such an inspiring and a special event. The first part of the event, we saw a short play about real life stories of the actors’ experiences with homelessness and gentrification. The play was unlike any that I have ever seen or experienced. The actors encouraged the audience to not just be an “audience” but to also be the “spec-actors.” Therefore, we were challenged to also act in the play itself after each play ended, so an audience can become one of the actors and tackle or resolve the problem in the play without the other actor’s knowledge. Each of the story had one thing in common, and that was gentrification. Other things the play brought into awareness was homelessness, corporate greed, and the issues of tenant’s rights.

I think that the way the actors were able to act in their own story was amazing due to the fact that they are passionate about sharing their experiences in order to bring attention and awareness about gentrification, homelessness, and corporate greed. These stories could have been told verbally or written as an article to an audience, but I think that it was far more powerful and interesting in the form of a play.

The second part of the Art and Social Change event introduced us to artists who dedicate their art to spread positive social changes in the society. Each artists told their stories visually or in one case, performed a beautiful dance choreography. The audiences were given a chance to ask questions, in which I found it fascinating to listen to. One question that was so intriguing was, “How do you react or response when people view your art as offensive, when it is suppose to have a positive stance in society?” All of the artists sort of agreed upon the same answer that it is important as an artist to accept all kinds of reactions or criticism, but it is sometimes almost out of their own power to change one’s opinion about their art pieces.

Overall, this ART-A-THON event was very informative and interesting to attend. It was such a privilege to see these inspiring artists dedicating their works to better society. The event certainly did help me acknowledge certain things in our society that needs to change. I am very excited to attend next year if there is an ART-A-THON event at Baruch again.