Artists occupy Wall Street

It has been two months since protesters first took to the streets, and still the Occupy Wall Street movement marches strong. The media, however, have cast a violent spotlight on major cities, specifically Oakland, Calif. and the ongoing police brutality there.

Publicized since October, Oakland police officers have physically smashed encampments to the ground and attacked over 1,000 supporters with tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets. Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen made news headlines overnight after being struck by a police projectile during an Occupy Oakland protest and has since become an "international figure of the Occupy protests," according to Ed Schultz of MSNBC.

Top news stations have also repeatedly featured the police pepper-spraying and arresting UC Davis students during a peaceful Occupy protest. Since its origins, the largely nonviolent, leaderless movement has sought to empower real people to create real change from the bottom up. Despite this, major news stations have selectively reported violence and placed a single face to the movement with constant interviews and medical updates of Olsen and other injured protesters.

Although police and protester violence has undeniably become a part of the Occupy movement, it is only part of the story. By emphasizing victimization and failing to reveal the creative way movement members are getting their message across, the press has created a biased lens through which its audience now views the Occupy movement. Instead of allowing the media to write the history of Occupy Wall Street, focus should be redirected to the true storytellers -- the artists who have recorded the movement since its birth.

Arts of all forms have emerged as means to express and channel the Occupy Wall Street movement. The New York Times recently featured an online short film produced by Melena Ryzik & Gabe Johnson which features Zefrey Throwell, a performance artist who had an idea to have real workers act like they are doing their job on Wall Street and shed their clothes in the process. His live artwork, titled "Exposing Wall Street," was inspired by his family's frustration with big corporations. Other protesters are currently pitching faux tent art projects across Manhattan. New York Daily News reporters Emily Sher and Helen Kennedy highlighted protesters' ideas to erect tent-like structures across Manhattan decorated with messages against the removal of Occupy movement tents in Zuccotti Park, to relay the notion of "liberating space by liberating minds."

The Arts and Culture committee of the New York City General Assembly has also played a key role in promoting art as a means to express and record the history and messages behind the movement.  The committee has sponsored several Occupy events, including poetry readings and spoken word performances in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. Helen Stoilas of The Art Newspaper recently exposed that this committee is currently in search of a multi-purpose indoor arts space that will be used for "studio space, rehearsals, concerts storage, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins and film screenings" to further promote and unite the art movement. While these members have been expressing their art in individual Occupy groups, several police evictions have denied artists the resources necessary to continue their work. If the Arts and Culture committee succeeds in finding a multi-purpose art room, not only will it provide a safe haven and renewed resources, but it will also serve to unite the creative minds of the movement.

According to Stoilas, the Arts and Culture committee has been at the heart of the protest since the beginning, helping to organize movement actions, design posters and create works inspired by protester ideas. In fact, several public exhibitions which feature art created by protesters or are inspired by the movement have already taken place. In addition, street art from both the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C. movements has been collected by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Roland Flamini of The Washington Post notes that the Smithsonian collected hand-made posters and other material in early October to build a record of the "embryonic movement" in case these protesters make the history books. Other products of the movement include an online archive "The Occupennial", which documents the art in whichever form, allowing for an artistic backboard where members of the movement can bounce off their ideas, messages, films, photos and other forms of art.

Although such artists (any protester with creative means to express the movement) and their messages are usually not presented by top news stations or featured on the front page, they have created the story of the Occupy Wall Street movement, have maintained it and will continue to fuel the fire of Occupy movements through art.