Art in Authoritarian Times: Artistic Freedom as Democratic Infrastructure with Scot Nakagawa
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What does it mean to make art in a moment when democracy itself is under threat, and why do authoritarians always come for artists first?
In this urgent presentation, strategist and democracy defender Scot Nakagawa, co-founder of the 22nd Century Initiative, makes the case that artistic freedom is not a cultural amenity but democratic infrastructure. It is the most sensitive indicator we have of the health of a free society. Drawing on the historical record from Nazi Germany to contemporary Hungary, and on the latest research on nonviolent civil resistance, Nakagawa argues that the assault on arts funding, public media, and free expression we are witnessing right now is not a culture war. It is an infrastructure attack. And artists are already on the front lines, whether they know it or not.
For artists and cultural workers who have been watching mass mobilizations and asking themselves what is my role in this?—this talk offers some answers. Nakagawa reframes the question entirely: you are not watching the resistance from the outside. You are making the resistance possible. From documenting reality against the falsification of history, to humanizing the people authoritarians want to erase, to building communities that no government authorized, the work artists do every day is the cultural foundation that democratic movements depend on. The evening ends with a specific ask: a commitment never to self-censor, and an invitation to understand the arts community as what it has always been—a river made of springs, each distinct, all moving in the same direction.
Scot Nakagawa
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Scot Nakagawa
Scot Nakagawa has been an organizer, social justice advocate since 1979. Since 1988, Scot’s main focus has been on the rise and mainstreaming of authoritarian movements, and of political violence in the name of ethnic and racial nationalism. He has worked with organizations such as the Coalition for Human Dignity, the National Anti-Klan Network, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and numerous political campaigns to limit the power and influence of racist, antisemitic, patriarchal, and religious fundamentalist leaders and groups.
Scot is also the co-founder and past Senior Partner of ChangeLab, an Asian American think/act laboratory addressing issues of social justice and Asian American leadership, work for which he was recognized by the Association of Asian American Studies, Community Leader Award. He is a past Open Society Foundations fellow, and Senior Fellow on Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and Race of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation. He is a writer whose essays on authoritarianism and resistance can be found online in The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook on Substack, and co-host of the Anti-Authoritarian Podcast.
