Making things happen with art: Leanne Prain cracks open The Creative Instigator’s Handbook

From global protests in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM) to love and appreciation for frontline healthcare workers, public engagement with social activism and community building has grown dramatically over the last decade. But how, exactly, does a first-time would-be activist turn their artistic idea into a project that makes a difference? 

Leanne Prain has some practical answers in The Creative Instigator’s Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change through Art, now available from Arsenal Pulp Press. The Creative Instigator’s Handbook book opens new and creative avenues for highlighting the most pressing social issues of our time, while offering an accessible way to find activist collaborators and navigate by-laws and regulations. The book features interviews with nearly two dozen international artists about their projects. Highlights include discussions about:

• the Official Unofficial Voting Station by Aram Han Sifuentes, an initiative to offer those unable to vote in the US a place to make their voices  symbolically heard 
• the BE MIGHTY project by Terrence Kelleman, which leaves inspiring words in public spaces around New York City 
• the Lil’ Red Dress Project, a collaborative beading project started by Carla Voyageur and Jeannine Lindsay that was inspired by the Red Dress installation honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). 

Prain is the author of two previous books on creative changemaking: Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet & Knit Graffiti (with Mandy Moore, now available in a tenth-anniversary edition) and Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles. She is also an expert on sparking social engagement through creative projects whose work has been featured in major publications worldwide, including The New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian UK and the Globe and Mail. With her deep background in the arts, she is also a familiar presence on the lecture, discussion panel and workshop circuit across North America, in places such as The Smithsonian, the San Francisco Craft Museum and Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Through these public works, Prain demonstrates that art is for everyone, and that creative engagement with community activism needs as little as a piece of cardboard and a pack of poster pens. In this interview with SesayArts Magazine, Prain speaks about why art is a necessary component of social movements, why we need more interactive and accessible art at the community level, how specific kinds of art can foster social engagement – and how the pandemic tested Prain’s confidence in her thesis, as well as the artists she interviewed.   

SM: What inspired you to write The Creative Instigator’s Handbook?

LP: I have a background in art spaces and community arts. When I published my first few books, I often found myself at book events where people would come up and shyly tell me about a project that they were doing in secret or ask me how to find others to make things with.

I know so many smart, talented people who are looking to attach themselves to big creative projects and all they do is wait and wait. A big moment of change for me a few years ago was realizing that there is no point in holding back and waiting on other people—I could rally  friends and sometimes strangers together and just make things happen.

I wrote this book because I wanted to give other people the encouragement and some really practical tools to start their own projects. If you want to see something happen, then you are probably the one who has to start it!

SM: Let’s talk about the process of writing it. What was the biggest surprise to come out of it? Were there any challenges?

LP: Although I’d written the original proposal for this book in 2017, I sat down to write it in the first week of March 2020—three days before everything around me shut down due to the pandemic! Usually I have to make excuses from my regular social life when I’m writing, but with the pandemic, every day was a day at home to write.

While I thought I knew the book I was going to write, what I’ve learned over the course of four different book projects is the book always changes and evolves into what it needs to be, and it is always a delightful surprise. Obviously the uncertainties of the pandemic influenced the project. It was important to me to talk to artists who were experiencing the pandemic in a variety of different ways and also see how this was challenging them either to change their artistic practice or to evolve their relationship to their work. There were also moments within writing the book where I began to doubt that the book was practical—could we ever gather again? But the one thing that came across for me finally was in art and in life, you just have to keep a little faith.

SM: One of the aspects of The Creative Instigator’s Handbook that I especially appreciate is that the content is accessible, appealing and readable for everyone, not just those who might consider themselves to be creative. In fact, by reading it, anyone can feel like they have an artist within them that is waiting to come out. How did you achieve this tone and effect?

LP: Thank you! That was truly my goal with this book. While I have a degree in art history, and I’ve worked in several gallery spaces, I do believe that art and creativity belong to everyone. It was important to me that everyone reading the book would feel empowered. I wrote the book in the way that I would have a conversation with a good friend. Having spent many years in community engagement, I can tell you that everyone has a creative side, but not everyone has been given the opportunity to nurture and explore their creative side. I hope that this book helps some people do that.

SM: The artists that you featured are compelling. How did you select them? Were there others that you wanted to include that you couldn’t?

LP: Honestly, I meant for the book to be much smaller than it is, but I kept finding people that I felt illustrated different types of projects. There were a few folks I would have liked to include but somewhere frankly dealing with the overwhelm due to the experience of the pandemic, and others, I did not have the opportunity to connect with. Here’s hoping for a sequel!

SM: How has the reception to The Creative Instigator’s Handbook been? Has any response to it surprised you?

LP: The book has been out a few months, and so far I’ve heard from first readers—many who have surprised me because they seem to be accomplished artists already! But I guess that is one thing about being a creative person, there is always more to explore and to learn.

SM: The design of the book, including the photographs, gives The Creative Instigator’s Handbook an almost scrapbook-like feel to it. Do you want to speak a little about the aesthetic of the book?

LP: Yes, I write my books with the page layout in mind. Among my many creative careers, I am a creative director and certified designer. Although I did not design this book myself (it was created by Jazmin Welch from the lovely Fleck Creative), I wanted the text to give the designer a lot of options so I wrote calls outs and lists. I wanted the book to be one that the reader could read at any point—you can pick it up, open it, and whatever page you end up on, there should be something to help you there. Most of all, I wanted it to be fun and to convey the radical energy of all of the creatives inside.

SM: What do you need to be a Creative Instigator?

LP: Not much—just an idea, some gumption, and the willingness to try something outside of your comfort zone. 

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022