Your guide to how The Minnesota Daily, The Wake Magazine and The Minnesota Student Association use art to advocate for social justice causes.
By Mikayla Scrignoli, Helen Sabrowsky, Shemarr Kilgore
University of Minnesota students have long used their involvement with student organizations to foster change on campus and within the greater Twin Cities community. And art has often played a role in sparking conversations, and sometimes even social change.
The Minnesota Daily, The Wake Magazine and the Minnesota Student Association have been platforms for students to use their art to call for change and raise awareness for social justice causes they care about. From commentary on politics to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement to raising awareness about sexual assault and resources on campus, these students express this through their art.
The Minnesota Daily
Artists at The Minnesota Daily, the U’s student-run newspaper, have used editorial cartoons to comment on current events since 1974 when the cartoonist position was created.
Robert McGrady, a former Minnesota Daily cartoonist, said cartoons have a unique ability to convey political messages because they are easy to understand. “Artwork can kind of sneak in the back door,” McGrady said, “it has this sort of sneaky way of embedding its politics in you without you even noticing.”
While readers might not always agree with the messages and ideas conveyed through editorial cartoons, exposure to different opinions is beneficial, McGrady said.
“It’s like eating a salad,” he said. “It’s like a little bitter, but I think ultimately good for you to exercise your muscles and it’s good to challenge what you think.”
The Wake Magazine
The Wake Magazine was created by students in the spring of 2002 in the wake of 9/11 when students were looking for a place to express themselves creatively through their words and through art.
Megan Bormann, The Wake’s art director, said that the magazine cares about social justice issues and making an impact with its use of art and the array of topics it covers.
“[Art] draws people’s attention to like the actual cover and the actual issue,” Bormann said. “If the cover at least makes people pick it up, and like read what it’s about like we’re doing something to participate and like activism. At least, like, if it makes someone think about something in a different way than we’ve done our job as a magazine.”
Laura Kuchar, who became The Wake’s creative director in Feb. 2022, said that the magazine covers a wide range of topics, ranging from lighthearted to quite serious. She said that it’s important that art plays an assistive role in telling the more serious stories.
“Art is very powerful and loud and it can be and it’s good when it is. But in a publication setting, I find that the art that I usually see is very much assistive rather than like, I’m telling the whole story,” Kuchar said.
The Minnesota Student Association
The Minnesota Student Association for the University of Minnesota works as a voice for the student body. They work to shape University policies, work with university administrators, the Board of Regents, and engage in every level of government. MSA does a lot of different things for advocacy.
In 2020 MSA worked with the University of Minnesota to cut ties with UMNPD after the murder of George Floyd. They also recently did a collaboration with The Wake. They used art to bring awareness to sexual assault on campus.
“MSA works hard to make sure that every student on campus is equally heard” Akah said.