>> Artists call was the name of
the effort in 1984 when the
artistic community throughout
North America rallied to protest
U.S. Intervention in central
America.
An exhibition at the tufts
university art gallery focuses
on that nearly forgotten moment
that ultimately provided the
movement -- the blueprint for
movements to come.
We have a closer look as part of
our arts and culture series.
>> By the mid-1980's, central
America was awash in war with
the U.S. Government sending
money and weapons to militant
forces.
Tens of thousands of people were
slaughtered.
In Guatemala, Indian villages
were leveled.
Soldiers waged guerrilla warfare
in Nicaragua.
Death squads patrolled el
Salvador.
Artist Beatrice Cortez was a
child at the time.
>> There were massacres and
destruction of entire villages,
etc.
I was in San Salvador, and my
parents were really great at
protecting me.
>> The violence was so horrific
protests rose up across north
America.
One of the most forceful and
fleeting was a movement called
artists call against U.S.
Intervention in Central America,
a grassroots effort that quickly
coalesced among artists,
galleries, and museums from
January 2 March of 1984.
>> Part of the message was we
cannot be indifferent.
We cannot be indifferent to the
destruction of others' cultures.
>> Cortez was one of the artists
injured in the show art for the
future at tufts university.
Five years in the making, it is
the first time the artists call
efforts have been
comprehensively re-examined.
>> This exhibition is focusing
on the activities that happened
in New York, but in fact, there
were 20 seven cities that
participated.
>> The show's co-curator
discovered 12 tucked away boxes
at the museum of modern arts
library in New York held a trove
of artists call history.
>> It was like an awakening.
It was like, oh, wow, this is,
like, way bigger than anyone
made it out to be.
>> The effort spread rapidly in
the U.S. And Canada with some 31
exhibitions.
1100 artists pitched in to raise
awareness and aid.
They marched and sold work.
They performed, recited that,
and produced films.
>> They wanted to kind of ignite
actions.
There's a procession for peace
were everyone walked with the
names of the disappeared.
They tied it to a balloon and
let the balloon fly into the
sky.
>> With the searing images of
this photographer as an early
prompt, the artists call was
trumpeted by teams of organizers
and committees making phone
calls, sending letters, and
distributing flyers.
>> I think there was a lot of
direct pointing to violence and
the expression of U.S. Power.
>> Abigail is the show's
co-curator and says the call and
response was so thunderous it
took organizers by surprise.
>> They were overwhelmed with a
response.
That was why it spread to all
these different cities.
They basically said, all you
have to do is take our
letterhead, at your own listings
and do your own thing and this
is not about unified expression.
This is about artists together.
>> High-profile artists
galvanized the effort.
He and his wife also conceived a
monument.
Though never built, it was a
symbol of hope, a pencil that
while broken still writes.
This piece protests the Vietnam
war, echoing a 1980's refrain
that El Salvador was Spanish for
Vietnam.
This piece appropriates a
"Fortune" magazine ad with a
halting twist.
>> We see this layered
understanding of how artists are
pushing against institutions to
do better and pushing against
media representations to do
better and really building that
conversation.
>> The curators have continued
that conversation into the
present.
They have invited artists to
plumb their archives for their
own contemporary response to
artists call.
>> It also speaks of the shelter
of immigrants in the middle of
the pandemic, so it is a shelter
for this archive that preserves
a moment
when the war in el
Salvador connected with
migration and with our world.
>> For the months it took hold,
the artists call was heard.
Its impact was big, broad, and
brief, all by design.
>> Part of the organizing
committee argued that it needed
to be ephemeral, that it needed
to dissipate and people would go
on to take those experiences and
do other things with them.
>> And they did because