“Over 50% of the Artists in New York Are people of Color: Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American [...] I am an artist. I am not a so-called “minority”, “new”, or “emerging” or “new audience.” - Howardena Pindell

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project history

Documents of Resistance is project started by Antonio Serna in 2014. The project grew out of collective research on alternative art histories and art worker protests of the 1960s/70s within Arts & Labor’s Alternative Economies Working Group. ‘Documents of Resistance’ is a project that combines all these realms, art, activism, and education. It is also both a collective effort and an individual pursuit.

Documents of Resistance is an art/research/educational project that presents an intersectional view of art history through the art and activism of people of color. In this history there is no separation between politics and culture. Here protests organizing and studio time are seen as different means to achieve the same goal.

Only this way can we see the emergence of a truly American avant garde. Documents of Resistance aims to give form to this avant garde, by bringing together the collective struggle and individual transformation of artists and communities of color between 1960 to the present time.

Melvin Edwards

Melvin Edwards

When we think of solidarity we think of a network held together by similar interest and mutual support. We can think of the realms of art, activism, and education acting together in this way—together they give each other support, meaning, and continuity. The moment we separate them is the moment their efforts can be defeated or rendered rote and easily exploited. This is why we should make our best effort to put forward these realms together without hesitation.