Favianna Rodriguez, the Oakland-based activist artist best known for bold posters and digital art that explore issues of social justice, has donated her personal archive to the UC Santa Barbara Library. The Favianna Rodriguez Papers are now housed in the library's California Ethnic Multicultural Archives (CEMA).
The Rodriguez archive, which currently consists of an initial installment of 31 art prints, will grow over time to include additional prints, sketches, lectures, correspondence, photographs, videos, and ephemera.
"I am honored to make my art accessible in the CEMA public archive," said Rodriguez. "Art is central to social change, and it is vital that we document the ways in which this relationship unfolds." The artist is internationally renowned for work that reflects the impact ordinary people can have on the conditions around them. She tackles issues such as immigration, globalization, economic inequities, patriarchy, racism, climate change, and war.
"CEMA's heartbeat has been in our rich holdings in movement-era social and political graphic art that speaks to us about the human condition," said CEMA Director Sal Güereña. "We are thrilled to add Favianna's work, which reminds us how far we have to go as a people to achieve equality, justice, and equal opportunity for all." CEMA's mission is to advance scholarship in ethnic studies through its varied collections of primary research materials.
Rodriguez, who lectures widely on the use of art in civic engagement, has founded several organizations dedicated to helping communities and artists harness the power of political graphics, murals, and the Internet as tools for social change. Her work is included in collections around the world, and in 2008, she was named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World."
More information about CEMA can be found at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/cema.
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