The Importance of Making Art When the World is on Fire: Making Art for Protest and Advocacy or Just Making Art to Process Your Feelings

When harm is happening in our country, when rights are threatened, violence is visible, and exhaustion feels constant, it can feel uncomfortable to make art. For some, creativity feels frivolous. For others, it brings up guilt: How dare I enjoy something when there is so much harm and pain happening to others?

These questions are valid. They come from care, awareness, and a deep sense of responsibility.

Craftivism offers us a framework for holding both truth and tenderness at the same time.

Making Art for Protest and Advocacy: Craftivism

Craftivism is the intersection of craft and activism. Historically, it has taken many forms: quilts made to memorialize lives lost, banners stitched for protests, zines created to spread information, and art used to document stories that might otherwise be erased.

Craftivism reminds us that creativity has never existed in a vacuum. Art has always been political. Not because it solves systemic harm, but because it reflects lived experience, amplifies voices, and builds connection.

At the same time, craftivism doesn’t demand that all art be public, loud, or productive.

Art Is Not a Replacement for Action

It’s important to name this clearly:

Art does not replace policy change. Art does not undo harm. Art does not absolve us from showing up in real ways.

Creating something does not mean we are “doing enough.” And making art should never be used to bypass anger, grief, or accountability.

But art can be part of how we stay human inside systems that are overwhelming and often cruel.

Art as a Tool for Survival and Sustainability

From a mental health and art therapy perspective, making art during times of crisis isn’t about escapism. It’s about regulation.

When we are exposed to constant stress, injustice, and uncertainty, our nervous systems stay activated. Over time, this can lead to burnout, numbness, or collapse. Art offers a way to process what words can’t always hold.

Creative practices can:

• Help us metabolize grief and rage

• Provide moments of grounding and rest

• Allow expression without needing to be “right” or articulate

• Support connection instead of isolation

This matters because sustainable action requires care. We cannot pour from empty bodies and minds.

Loud Art and Quiet Art Both Matter

Craftivism doesn’t have a single aesthetic or volume.

For some people, it looks like:

• Protest posters

• Public murals

• Zines, prints, and educational art

• Visual storytelling meant to be shared widely

For others, it looks like:

• Collage made late at night

• Knitting or stitching to regulate anxiety

• Drawing through tears

• Making art that no one else ever sees

Both are valid. Both are needed.

Not everyone has equal access to safety, time, or resources to create publicly or visibly. Quiet art is not lesser. Private creativity is not avoidance. Sometimes it is the only way to keep going.

Naming Privilege Without Freezing in Guilt

It’s also important to acknowledge that access to art, rest, and creative space is shaped by privilege.

Not everyone can step away from survival demands to make something. And naming that reality matters.

But awareness doesn’t require paralysis.

Using the resources you do have while staying informed, showing up when possible, and listening to impacted communities can coexist with creative care. Guilt alone doesn’t create change; sustained engagement does.

Holding Space at Healing Thyme Studio

At Healing Thyme Studio, we believe art can be honest, imperfect, and grounded in reality. We don’t ask art to be pretty, marketable, or optimistic. We welcome art that holds anger, grief, confusion, and tenderness all at once.

We see creativity as one thread in a larger tapestry of care, action, and community. Not the whole solution, but a meaningful part of it.

You don’t have to make art about what’s happening.You don’t have to share it.You don’t even have to finish it.

But if art helps you breathe, reconnect, or remember yourself and remember what we're fighting for in the middle of all this, there is room for that.

Staying in It Together

Craftivism isn’t about choosing art instead of action. It’s about choosing humanity alongside it.

In times of crisis, making art can be a way to stay present, to stay connected, and to stay capable of care for ourselves and for each other.

And that, too, is part of the work.