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# Rosa Parks as Performance Artist?
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/rosa-parks-performance-artist/
- Published: 2010-12-09T02:10:04.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:49:06.000Z
- Description: Rob Maguire, who is the founder and editor of Art Threat [http://artthreat.net/], a Canadian blog devoted to exploring political art and showcasing artists whose work inspires social change, hurled out this nugget during a recent online "water cooler" hosted by The National Post newspaper about art
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, human rights, Marina Abramovic, Performance Art, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/12/rosa-parks-marina-med.jpg)

Left, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks; and right, performance artist Marina Abramović.

Rob Maguire, who is the founder and editor of [Art Threat](http://artthreat.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a Canadian blog devoted to exploring political art and showcasing artists whose work inspires social change, hurled out this nugget during today’s online “water cooler” hosted by *The National Post* newspaper about [art and ethics](http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/12/08/culture-club-arguing-for-the-sake-of-art/?ref=hyperallergic.com):

> … artists may break the law to draw attention to such injustice and oppression. Sure, it’ll make some people uncomfortable, especially those people in power whose authority is being challenged, as well as those unfairly privileged by the current set of rules. But artists play an important role in pushing society forward, and progress can be messy. Pardon the crude analogy, but **if Rosa Parks were a performance artist, would she not still be a hero?**

Read the whole post [here](http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/12/08/culture-club-arguing-for-the-sake-of-art/?ref=hyperallergic.com).