Freedom of speech has always been important to students — especially students who protest on college campuses. 

At the heart of these protests, art is a medium for organizations to easily spread their message. Bring communities together, and highlight the talent of members of these organizations who may otherwise not be able to participate.

Throughout the 2024-25 academic year, students at the University of Iowa have been speaking out against current policies going into effect at the university, including a decline in funding for certain departments, the removal of living learning communities, and the closure of the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity.

These organizations provide roles for all who want to participate. Students have been able to get active by creating posters and buttons used at protests or to advertise future protests. In some cases, student organizations had booths where protestors could add to art projects. 

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“Art is important because it can be shared so easily,” photographer and member of the Artivists of Iowa Samm Yu said. “Art is so effective in person and on social media, whether that’s wheat pasting or print making or just creating an infographic. I also think art helps use people’s talents that might not otherwise feel like they have a place in protest movements or protest circles.”

Artivists of Iowa is a group that demonstrates the intersection of art and activism using several artistic methods, including block printing and graphic design. Yu is the only member of Artivists based in Iowa City Iowa, while the rest of the group is based in Cedar Rapids. 

Their art is used for several purposes. Sometimes, the artists make banners or teach people how to make prints to be used at protests around Iowa. On the other hand, the art can also be used as a fundraising technique, creating merchandise and prints to sell as a means to an end.

Artivists has also collaborated with stores in downtown Iowa City such as Raygun, which houses several pieces of Artivists of Iowa’s merchandise. 

On top of simply making prints to use at a protest for themselves or to be sold as a fundraiser, the creation of art is a way to involve everyone in the process. In some cases, there are people who cannot physically attend protests, such as people with disabilities or people who are immunocompromised. For these participants, the act of making the art is a way for them to join in community with these organizations. 

In this case, Artivists for Iowa uses a “teach a man to fish” mantra. Hosting printmaking session allows activists to establish a safe environment for creating art and teaching participants lessons they can pass on.

For other organizations on campus, creating art as a group is a main source of art for protest.

Epiphany Jones and Ramata Traore promoted Take Back the Night, an annual rally working to end sexual and domestic violence, on April 22. Their table on the Pentacrest featured a blank banner and containers of colorful permanent markers. The banner was displayed at the rally the following day.

“Here we have our little community art, a project we have that anybody’s welcome to come and draw anything or write down anything that they feel that they want to,” Epiphany Jones said.

On the banner, a key showed colors representing different experiences so passersby could add to the banner with their respective colors and drawings.

“The idea is to show, with all the art and the colors, that [sexual and domestic violence] impacts so many people and in so many different ways,” Jones said.

Besides art that can be transported, many student organizations exercise their freedom of speech through chalk mesages which are often found on the Pentacrest and T. Anne Cleary Walkway.

“We planned some of the locations where the messages would be best, but not exactly what we were going to write,” Traore said.

Traore and Jones displayed their chalk art on the Pentacrest sidewalk along Clinton Street, where there is a lot of foot and car traffic, a prime spot for promoting.

Although art can be used to help other communities or push movements forward, it can also create personal pride. 

“I can create really beautiful art that represents a lot of different types of people, like LGBTQ identifying people, people of various racial backgrounds, disabilities, whatever it might be. I feel like it’s changed over time, but it’s always very fulfilling,” Yu said.