Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda:

A Call for Citizen Art

Megan Hoots

University of Florida
 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 2

A Call for Citizen Art

Introduction

There is an irrefutable link between the arts and social transformation (Quinn, 2008). Art

can “instigate change in people and events” (Quinn, 2008, p. 2) by stimulating both cognitive

reflection and thoughtful responses. This process makes viewers susceptible to meaningful

transformation, often revealing “another way to view the world” (Quinn, 2008, p. 3) while

kindling shifts in social and political beliefs. History confirms that artmaking can be a powerful

tool for influencing the hearts and minds of a population (Kornhaber, 2018).

The Constructivist movement of the early twentieth century successfully leveraged art as

a tool for political and social change, shaping the collective conscious of the Russian proletariat.

Today, contemporary street artist Shepard Fairey mimics the Constructivists’ tradition in his

viral propagandistic posters and large-scale murals which actively seek to both engage and

transform contemporary society (D’Ambrosio, 2009). Fairey’s body of work “stresses art’s role

in strengthening democracy and uplifting people” (D’Ambrosio, 2009, p. 33), elevating the

voices of the masses. The link between the “power of the arts to the possibility of social change”

(Quinn, 2008, p. 2) should be thoroughly investigated and taught by art educators.

Teachers have a duty to groom responsible and engaged citizens. Art educators have the

unique opportunity to blur the boundaries between art, education and activism (Campana,

2011). The fusion of art, education and activism best cultivated at a local level, as “community

is the primary association about which the integration of art activities and democratic goals

should be organized” (Campana, 2011, p. 279). Examining relevant, regional issues can
 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 3

A Call for Citizen Art

“empower students to be thoughtful, reflective, and active participants in society” (Campana,

2011, p, 280) and their community.

I support Campana’s (2011) theory by addressing a current, local controversy to

potentially catalyze citizen engagement through art education. The City of Vero Beach, Florida,

is at a precipice; to sell 37 acres of waterfront property, known as the Three Corners, to private

developers or retain the property and repurpose it for communal greenspace, recreational and

cultural enjoyment (Reisman, 2019). Through the application of community art education, I hope

to facilitate a “dialogue towards political and social consciousness for both participants and the

broader public” (Campana, 2011, p. 281) to address the future of the Three Corners.

Soviet Constructivism

Soviet Constructivism harnessed “form and design to advance concrete social and

political goals” (Hillegas, 2019, para. 12) in the years following the Russian Revolution.

Constructivism aimed to embody communal artistic expression, by enlightening and cultivating

the knowledge of the proletariat and changing the consciousness of the collective masses. This

seamless marriage of art and socio-political messaging “came to be known as agitprop- a

combination of the words agitation and propaganda” (Hillegas, 2019, para. 12) because of its

uncanny ability to incite and excite the populace. Leading constructivist artists Vladimir Tatlin

and Aleksandr Rodchenko used “bold designs... stark geometric forms and striking diagonal

lines” (Hillegas, 2019, para. 11) generating eye catching propaganda posters that served the

proletariat. The distilled images and sparse designs were easy to reproduce on a large scale,
 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 4

A Call for Citizen Art

“propagating revolutionary messages among mainly illiterate people, which was one of the chief

aims of Constructivism” (Screti, 2017, p. 371). This style of pared-down imagery has become

popular with street artists in recent decades because of its uniqueness to quickly and easily

convey digestible messaging with little or no wordage.

Shepard Fairey

Citizen-artist Shepard Fairey has adopted the Constructivist tradition in his own oeuvre

(D’Ambrosio, 2009). During the 2008 presidential election, Fairey became widely known for his

depiction of President Barack Obama with the success of his Hope (2008) poster. The portrait

depicted the young Illinois senator looking upward into the horizon and Fairey’s “color palette

reimagined the traditional political aesthetic of red, white, and blue as a single bold red, cream in

place of white and two shades of blue” (Schwarz, 2017, para 11) marrying fresh layers of color

to a classic patriotic motif. At the bottom register, “in an all-caps can-serif font, is the word

Hope” (Schwarz, 2017, para. 11) courageously spanning the width of the image. The poster was

the antithesis of eight years under President George W. Bush and quickly became the sigil of

President Obama’s campaign representing optimism for a brighter future.

Hope (2008) became an “indie-pop, street-art blockbuster smash, with an initial run of

700, and eventually more than 300,000 distributed” (Schwarz, 2017, para. 12). Fairey makes art

“to communicate with as many people as possible, and the more universal… the better”

(D’Ambrosio, 2009, p. 32) and the simplicity of Hope (2008) made the message easy to digest

and reproduce for the masses. Hope (2008) was an amalgamation of art and meme; it was a
 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 5

A Call for Citizen Art

“Snapchat filter before Snapchat” (Schwarz, 2017, para 15) and its viral popularity helped to

pave the way to the presidency.

Since the success of Hope (2008), Fairey has continued to address important issues

within the street art tradition; composing large scale, graphic murals with clear socio-political

messaging. Fairey values “the use of visual arts for social control” (Freedman, 2001, p. 42) and

has honed his craft to maximize visibility and impact. Fairey’s works prove McCormick’s (2009)

point that art can be a “radical tool of social intervention” (p. 51) when properly regarded by

scholars and educators.

Art Education and Activism

Delacruz (2011) argues, art educators are responsible for teaching a new generation of

"innovative, creative, critically informed and ethically engaged citizen(s)" (p. 8). The

opportunity to shape future citizens of the world is a rare liberty that art educators are afforded

and should not be squandered by advancing only neutral artmaking. A traditional art education is

born from “a standardized curriculum (that) is inflexible; it can’t respond to current events”

(Quinn, 2008, p. 11) and furthers an inequitable education. Art educators should create and

promote curricula that responds to “whatever is bubbling up from our movements for social

justice” (Quinn, 2008, p. 8) to shape ethical behavior and cultural citizenship in students

(Delacruz, 2011). Quinn (2008) highlights the “power of classroom teachers to create

engagements with art that are both socially and personally meaningful” (p. 10) to address

contemporary issues most relevant to student lives and promote democracy.

 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 6

A Call for Citizen Art

Often, “the community is the primary association about which the integration of art

activities and democratic goals should be organized” (Campana, 2011, p. 279). Artists, educators

and art play an integral role in “community-building, cultural affirmation, and articulating a need

for change” (Campana, 2011, 279), helping to elevate the needs and voice of the populace.

Campana (2011) stress the usefulness of community art education which reaches far outside

traditional school settings and influences “any number and age of people” (p. 280). Art

education that is both community-inspired and community-driven greatly expands the impact of

art and visual culture beyond the classroom, focusing on a range of issues that schools and

administrations cannot comprehensively address or influence (Campana, 2011).

Community Based Art as Activism

As an art educator, I am interested in creating community-based art projects that are

“participatory in nature, focusing on empowerment and ownership in the process” (Campana,

2011, p. 280) in order to challenge the status quo and confront dominant culture. If artists and

educators are to be a “catalyst for change (they) must reposition themselves as citizen-activists”

(Campana, 2011, p. 282) by first identifying important issues within a community to address.

Addressing a Local Issue: The Three Corners

The current City Council of the City of Vero Beach, Florida has a long history of divisive

decision making. The council was met with public uproar after selling multiple city owned

properties downtown to large, corporate developers without prior approval from the public. Now,
 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 7

A Call for Citizen Art

the fate of a large parcel of waterfront property known as the Three Corners is at hand. A

majority of the sitting council members are unabashedly interested in identifying the highest

bidder to unload the property into private control, while the community pleads for input.

Reisman (2019), a local journalist, recently stated; “given that (any) plan could take

decades to complete, younger people… should play key roles in the planning” (para. 21) and the

process should remain transparent to the public. I believe the residents can collectively address

the future of the Three Corners as Freedman (2011) suggests; “by organizing art experiences that

help (the) community” (p. 42) through art education practices.

#makingyourvero

Freedman (2011) asserts that “leadership in art education requires the participation of

many people, collaborating within and negotiating across social groups” (p. 42), so I utilized a

town hall meeting at our local community center to source feedback on the Three Corners from

leaders and stakeholders in the community. It became abundantly clear that the citizens wanted

the city-owned property to remain public and offer residents culture, food, green space and

recreation. I followed up my initial findings with an online poll that reinforced what I had

already gleaned; the public had a clear and defined opinion for the future of the land in question

and sought to influence its fate. As a “publicly engaged artist/scholar/teacher” (Delacruz, 2011,

p. 7) I became compelled to create a series of artworks that would educate, excite and encourage

participation from the public.

 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 8

A Call for Citizen Art

My original series #makingyourvero (2019) is comprised of four H-stake yard signs, a

device which is most commonly utilized by political campaigns. The signs all echo the style of

the soviet Constructivist and Shepard Fairey; a simple, colorful rising sun radiating in the

background, with a bold and graphic image at the center and the hashtag #makingyourvero

stretching across the bottom register. The first sign, Culture depicts a simplified amphitheater

representing the need for a center for culture and the performing arts. The second sign, Food is a

stark contour of a food truck, which was the most frequently identified want from the

community. Green Space, the third sign, is a silhouette of large heron in flight with a pair of

binoculars for viewing nature. Finally, Recreation is the outline of a playground, representing

safe spaces for children and families to play.

The signs were installed at the disputed location; a busy intersection and the clarity of the

simple designs made the images easy to read by passersby, prompting contemplation over the

future of the land. The hashtag, #makingyourvero, is a call to citizens to participate in the effort;

encouraging the community to post ideas, original art, essays and more under this hashtag that

reflect their ambitions for the Three Corners. It is my hope that #makingyourvero (2019) as a

series will promote the hashtag #makingyourvero and it will become a digital, participatory

manifesto, sending a clear message to the establishment of the proletariat's aims. Although the

campaign is only a week old, it is burgeoning with multiple shares on social media, implying a

willingness of the community to participate.

 Influencing the City of Vero Beach City Council’s Public Land Use Agenda: 9

A Call for Citizen Art

Conclusion

Kornhaber (2018) reminds us that “political art can work in more-outward-facing modes,

aiming at villains, emboldening the righteous, and forcing conversations” (p. 92) at every level

of society. Drawing parallels between artists and protestors, Jasper (1997) contends both can

“form new ways of seeing and judging the world, new ways of feeling about it” (p. 369). Art

educators must promote this alternative way of seeing both inside and outside of the classroom to

cultivate “intellectual rigor, inquiry, imagination, and civic engagement” (Delacruz, 2011, p. 7).

We must lead “insurgent citizens in order to challenge those with political and cultural power”

(Campana, 2011, p. 281) through critical inquiry, education and the artmaking process.
 References

Campana, A. (2011). Agents of possibility: Examining the intersections of art, education, and

activism in communities. Studies in Art Education, 52(4), 278-291.

D’ Ambrosio, A. (2009, June). Shepard Fairey, citizen artist. The Progressive, 73(6), 31-33.

Delacruz, E. M. (2011). The teacher as public enemy # 1: A response in these most uncivil times.

Art Education, 64(6), 5-10.

Fairey, S. (2008). Hope. [Painting]. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.

Freedman, K. (2011). Leadership in art education: Taking action in schools and communities.

Art Education, 64(2), 40-45.

Hillegas, L. (2019, January). Constructivism brought the Russian revolution to the art world.

Artsy. Retrieved from https://www.artsy.net/series/art-history-101/artsy-editorial-

constructivism-brought-russian-revolution-art

Hoots, M. (2019). #makingyourvero. [Painting, series]. Vero Beach, FL.

Jasper, J. M. (2015). The art of moral protest: culture, biography, and creativity in social

movements. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Kornhaber, S. (2018, June). Pop culture’s failure to rage. The Atlantic, 321(5), 90-98.

McCormick, C. (2009). Hopeful disobedience. Art in America, 97(3), 51-54.

Quinn, T. (2008). Velvet vulvas at school: The catalyzing power of the arts in education.

Democracy & Education, 17(3), 32-37.

Reisman, L. (2019, April). Delaying Three Corners consultant selection prudent move by Vero

Beach council, but…TC Palm, Retrieved from

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/columnists/laurence-reisman/2019/04/05/vero-

beach-wise-not-rush-pact-alma-lee-loy-bridge-andres-duany-charrette-dpz-scott-merrill-

charette/3349699002/

Schwarz, H. (2017, November). Life after ‘hope’: Obama poster creator Shepard Fairey reflects

on art and politics in the age of Trump. CNN Wire. Retrieved from

https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/shepard-fairey-obey-giant/index.html

Screti, F. (2017). Counter-revolutionary art: OBEY and the manufacturing of dissent. Critical

Discourse Studies, 14(4), 362-383.

Wixon, C. (2019, April). Vero Beach City Council to consider proposals that would help plan

future of electric plant site. TC Palm, Retrieved from

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/shaping-our-future/growth/2019/04/01/vero-beach-

city-council-consider-proposals-future-former-power-plant-site/3330394002/