"It Was Always Greater Than Just Art" An Ethnographic Study of Black Artivism, Resistance and Collective Care in Washington D.C.

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how Black artists in Washington D.C use creative practices to produce resistance, care and collective survival within artivist creative spaces. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with ARTIVISM, a Black-led artivist company in Washington D.C. Grounded in intersectionality as critical social theory and Black feminist thought, the study investigates the interior communities of artivist creative spaces. The findings show that resistance, community, care and sustainability are mutually constitutive dimensions of artivist life, produced through the same practices, in the same spaces. Creative spaces function as sites of political resistance, Black placemaking and belonging, collective care and creative sustainability. This thesis contributes to broader discourse on Black artivism and the study of creative spaces as sites of resistance. Ultimately, the study reveals that for Black artists in Washington D.C, creative spaces and creative practices are conditions under which resistance, community and collective survival are made possible.