Art & Oppression Initiative

The Arts Research Institute (ARI) developed the Art & Oppression Initiative to combat oppression, fight censorship and empower communities through funded creative projects with generous funding support from UCSC alumni Peter Coha and Jim Gunderson https://www.artandoppression.com  

In Fall 2022, SPARC with Professor Dee Hibbert-Jones designed and taught the Art & Oppression Initiative Comic’s competition class. Working in collaboration with the McHenry Special Collections Library. The final event included

• UCSC undergraduate student comics awards, class and culminating exhibition
• Publication of the Slug comic Women, War and Westinghouse with featured comics by Amy Gerstler (award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism), Eisner-nominated comics writer and artist Ivan Brandon, published by comics collector/Slug Comics publisher Jim Gunderson.