Breakthrough Art Organization

Welcome to the Breakthrough Art Organization's blog! We want this blog to become a global meeting place for artists overcoming obstacles through the use of art, and for others interested in the capacity of art to address political, social, economic and personal challenges.

Throughout history artists have, with their art, forced societies to confront old ideas with new perspectives. Often artists are seen as threats by those entrenched in the status quo.

Breakthrough Art Organization launched at the end of 2009 to give greater voice and connectivity to artists and supporters of art around the world. Our inaugural program, running through the end of 2010, focuses on lessons learned from the lives of 10 dissident artists from former East Germany. These artists suffered persecution and oppression for their commitment to freely express themselves as artists. Some were imprisoned, others went into exile leaving behind families and friends, and yet others remained in East Germany until Germany was reunified, suffering with the fears and uncertainties that come with living under the constant, watchful eye of the state secret police.

Our inaugural program "Breakthrough! Twenty Years After German Unification: Critical Perspectives of Berlin Artists" will bring the 10 artists and 90 pieces of artwork to five US cities for an exhibition and educational outreach program with youth, students, political and business leaders, and others. The artwork was selected on the basis of how it can serve as a alunching point for discussions focused on issues such as freedom of expression, courage, determination, honesty, and fairness.

So far we have chosen Nashville, Aspen, Washingtong, D.C., and San Antonio as venues; the fifth city is still under review. In each city we will dedicate a portion of the educaitonal outreach to local issues of particular relevance to our key topics and values. In Nashville, for example, we organized a Civil Rights Roundtable discussion focused on non-violent protest with participants from the 1960's Sit-In movement that helped break down racial barriers in the South. In San Antonio later this year we will look at the experiences of our artists "behind the Wall" as we discuss new Walls that continue to plague societies everywhere today, including the US.

Please feel free to share your ideas in text, pictures and video and make this an active and meaningful meeting place! We are interested in your thoughts on this inaugural project as well as on ideas concerning possible future activities of the Breakthrough Art Organization.