About
Artists have a unique role to play in accelerating social change for the betterment of people and the planet. The Artist as Changemaker (AAC) Residency Program looks to illuminate, elevate, and expand the capacity of socially engaged artists to create meaningful social change. This program is designed for and by artists. It exists to reveal the relationship between art, the artistic process, social innovation, and systems thinking in creating pathways for change.
The Residency Program is designed to help both artists and organizations develop a strong knowledge of:
- Tools, resources, and frameworks for social innovation and systems change
- The specifics of the complex issue or ‘wicked problem’ that the organization and artist sets out to address
- The strengths of the socially engaged artist
- Ways in which artists and organizations can collaborate
Why artists
Because artists have always been paving the way for change.
Artists have the capacity to mobilize people and catalyze action. They expose the underlying conditions that hold problems in place. They inspire new connections and offer people new possibilities for engaging with a challenge.
Combining the artistic process with the tools of social innovation can help socially engaged artists identify leverage points to amplify change. Partnerships with organizations on the front lines of social problems serve as fertile ground for artists to demonstrate these abilities.
The residency focuses on developing three main areas.
Expanding Knowledge
Expanding social innovation and systems change learning is a core objective as we try to understand how artists could use this knowledge to inform their artistic process, how the artistic process is interrelated with social change, and how it can advance systems change.
Investing & Deepening Relationships
Investing and deepening the relationships between the cohort of artists and partner organizations is a core objective as we try to understand what it means to work collaboratively in an environment of trust, knowledge sharing, and deep connection.
‘Process as Outcome’
Change often occurs in the ‘how’, not the ‘what’. Social innovation practices place as much (if not more) emphasis on the process of innovation rather than the final product. It is in the process of working together that transformation occurs. Focusing on the process with the artists cohort and partner organizations allows us to gain deeper insight and understanding into the role that artists play in social change and transformation.
Call for Applications
Have Questions?
Contact: Kelaena Maude, Program Lead at kmaude@mtroyal.ca.
Past Cohorts and Learning
Artist as Changemaker 2025-2026 Cohort
Between 2025-2026, a cohort of eight socially engaged artists worked alongside eight community partner organizations, each pairing bringing together a different set of questions, communities, and creative approaches. For these artists, the creative process is the change process. Artists and their partners spend the year building relationships, learning systems change tools, and exploring how the artistic process itself can shift thinking, build trust, and open up new possibilities for the communities they work with. This is work that can take time, is relational, and often uncertain. It asks artists to show up not just as makers but as listeners, collaborators, and co-creators. It asks organizations to make room for the creative process alongside the other tools they bring to community engagement.
Artist as Changemaker 2025-2026 Report
In a world shaped by complexity, artists move as meaning-makers and translators, helping communities sense what is shifting beneath the surface and reach toward what is still becoming. Artists have a distinct role to play in tending to the cultural, social, and ecological conditions where communities and the natural world can flourish. When artistic practice meets the tools of social innovation and systems thinking, artists can find the leverage points where creative work can meet and move the change already stirring within communities.
Now in its 7th year and 4th iteration, the program is an initiative to illuminate, elevate, and expand the capacity of socially engaged artists to create pathways to social change.
Artist as Changemaker 2024 Program Report
The Artist as Changemaker Program (AAC) is a seasoned initiative spanning 6 years and 3 iterations, aimed to expand the capacity of artists to facilitate meaningful social change in Calgary, Alberta. Since inception, the program has been co-designed with participating artists to meet artists' needs in facilitating change in community, and in partnership with community organizations. Artists explore the relationship between the artistic process and social innovation as a means to discover unique and creative ways to address complex social challenges.
Artist as Changemaker 2021 Program Report
The Artist as Changemaker Residency Program is a direct outcome of the Artist as Changemaker Project. The second pilot of the residency program launched in January 2021 and ran until June 2021. Artists expressed the importance of leveraging relationships with organizations on the front lines of social problems, which informed the focus of the 2021 residency: How might artiss and organization work together to address complex challenges?
Artist as Changemaker 2020 Program Report
As a society, the challenges we face are complex and do not have easy solutions, and artists have been playing powerful roles to help us understand and make sense of complexity. Using art, artists invite people to enter into alternative realities in all sorts of ways. Artists use playfulness, dialogue, and even controversy to evoke emotions that have the potential to catalyze action. This is one of the ways that artists contribute to systems thinking and change work. Artists help to clarify patterns and trends in society by challenging mental models, which are founded on layers of beliefs, values, assumptions, and traditions.
Artist as Changemaker Card Deck
Artists are the Changemakers of our times.They are able to influence mental models, build empathy, and support group processes through their artistic practice. We built this deck as an open and adaptable tool for artists and groups who are doing changemaking work together. Use it to build common ground, unpack ideas, get inspired, understand impact, and dream big.
