Center for Artistic Activism (C4AA)

The C4AA has received substantial financial backing from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the principal grantmaking network of left-of-center billionaire financier George Soros, as well as from other Soros family members. As of 2026, confirmed Soros Network and Soros-family contributions to the C4AA had totaled at least $2.4 million. ^{3 4 5 6 7}

Background

The Center for Artistic Activism was founded in 2009 by academic and activist Stephen Duncombe and artist Steve Lambert, who described the practice of artistic activism as a methodology that combined the creative elements of the arts with the strategic goals of political organizing. Lambert had previously worked on “The New York Times Special Edition” in 2008, a project organized with the activist collective the Yes Men that distributed a fictional edition of the newspaper announcing the end of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, Lambert and Duncombe authored The Art of Activism: Your All Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible, which featured praise of the communist Black Panther Party. ^{8 9 10}

A year after its founding, the C4AA launched the “School for Creative Activism,” a training program designed to teach organizers and community activists how to deploy creative strategies in advocacy campaigns. The program served as the organization’s primary vehicle for training activists in the early years of its operation. To describe the program at the time of its announcement, its co-director Steve Lambert said, “Imagine if Saul Alinsky took a class in performance art.” ⁴

Activities

The Center for Artistic Activism conducts workshops, training programs, and strategic advising sessions for advocacy organizations, arts groups, grantmakers, and individual activists. As of 2026, the organization claimed to have operated in 23 countries on six continents over the course of its history, working with left-of-center activist groups on issues including voting access, public health, human rights, and environmentalism. ¹

Among the C4AA’s most prominent programs was Unstoppable Voters, a multi-year initiative that provided training, fellowships, and funding to organizations working on left-wing voting-access campaigns in the United States. The program supported more than 115 organizations and trained more than 1,100 individuals on using creative and cultural tactics in voting advocacy. Unstoppable Voters received its primary funding from Andrea Soros Colombel, a daughter of George Soros who has sat on the global and U.S. boards of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), as well as from OSF directly. ^{11 5}

The C4AA also collaborated with the OSF on its Arts and Culture program, helping to integrate creative communities into human rights work globally, and assisted the OSF with strategic planning, staff trainings, and assessment research for OSFbgrantees. Other major project partners of the C4AA have included Cleveland Votes, Greenpeace South Africa, People for the American Way (PFAW), and A Blade of Grass. ²

C4AA co-founder Stephen Duncombe has listed the OSF among the primary organizations that have supported his scholarly and activist work over the years, along with the Fulbright Program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. ¹²

The C4AA partnered with the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C. to produce “The Utopia Project,” an exhibition that explored the role of art and imagination in social movements. The organization also offered an open-access webinar series, “Revolutionizing Activism,” which reached more than 1,800 participants, as well as free mentoring through office hour sessions and publicly available resources including the book The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible, co-authored by Duncombe and Lambert. ^{13 14 9 10}

Financials

The Center for Artistic Activism has received at least $2.4 million in confirmed George Soros-linked contributions over its history. In 2010, the Power and Democracy Fund of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) (then known as the Open Society Institute) awarded the C4AA’s School for Creative Activism a $45,000 grant for curricular development and organizer training. In 2012, the OSF’s Democracy and Power Fund awarded a follow-up grant of $75,000 to expand the School for Creative Activism. In 2022, the C4AA announced that Andrea Soros Colombel, a Soros family member who sits on OSF boards, had awarded a $1.9 million multi-year grant to fund the Unstoppable Voters program; the OSF also provided direct support to the program. Additionally, Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society has contributed grants to the C4AA over the years. ^{4 3 5 7 6}

Leadership

As of 2026, Rebecca Bray was executive director of the Center for Artistic Activism. ⁸

As of 2026, C4AA co-founder Stephen Duncombe was research director of the organization. At that time, he was working as a professor of Media and Culture at New York University. Duncombe holds a Ph.D. in sociology and has worked for more than three decades as an instructor and activist. ¹⁵

As of 2026, C4AA co-founder Steve Lambert was artistic director of C4AA. At that time, he was working as a professional artist and as an associate professor of new media at SUNY Purchase. Lambert is known for public art projects with explicit political messaging. Lambert previously worked as a senior fellow at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York from 2006 to 2010. ⁹