Cambridge Festival Speaker Spotlight

Katherine Hasegawa is an emerging and independent Venezuelan ARTivist based in Cambridge. Since 2019, Katherine been using real money as an artistic tool to protest peacefully against acts of injustice.

Katherine will be hosting a hands-on workshop where we take Venezuelan banknotes and transform them into a work of art. Tear apart these banknotes to explore ARTivism; a form of art that responds to political, social, and environmental challenges.

What is ARTivism? And what purpose does it serve?

ARTivism is a fusion of art and activism, where creative expression becomes a powerful tool for demanding social or political change. It can take many forms, such as music, performances, installations, and various types of visual art. Unlike traditional art, ARTivism often seeks to challenge injustice, raise awareness of societal issues, and amplify the voices of marginalised communities.

The purpose of ARTivism is to provoke thought, spark conversations, and ultimately drive change. Different to conventional activism, which often relies on direct political action (eg joining political parties, writing submissions, marching in rallies, etc), ARTivism engages people on an emotional and imaginative level. By making complex issues more accessible and relatable through creative expression, ARTivism encourages dialogue and inspires action. Through this approach, it challenges dominant narratives, fosters empathy, and has the capacity to change viewpoints and inspire societal transformation.

Why is ARTivism so important? Can you give some well-known examples of how it’s had an impact and effected change?

ARTivism is important because it nicely gives people the opportunity to transform awareness into action whiles also creating something of value. It allows people to engage with social and political issues in a way that is emotional, visual, and interactive. In many cases, art can reach audiences that traditional activism cannot, breaking down barriers and making difficult topics more relatable.

Throughout history, ARTivism has played a vital role in movements for justice, equality, and freedom. Some well-known examples include:

• Banksy’s politically charged street art, which challenges consumerism, war, and government surveillance.
• Black Lives Matter murals and public art, which have been powerful tools in protesting racial injustice worldwide.
• Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist who has used installations, films, and photography to expose human rights violations and government oppression.
• The Guerrilla Girls, which are an anonymous collective of feminist artists who use bold posters and street art to highlight gender and racial inequalities in the art world. One of their most famous posters, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?”, is a piece I absolutely love because of the cleverness of its message. It presents data and facts while featuring yet another depiction of a naked woman, a striking commentary on the objectification of women in art. The distinctive monkey mask, which represents the anonymity of the Guerrilla Girls, makes their identity and mission even more memorable.

While I can’t fully attribute the increased presence of art made by women in museums and galleries solely to ARTivism, I believe that artistic interventions like this have played a crucial role in sparking conversations and inspiring action in favour of women artists. I’m certain that everyone is contributing in their own way, using the tools they have at hand.

On this note, I would like to acknowledge the incredible work being done by Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. For over two decades, they have been preserving and nurturing a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art created by women. The Women’s Art Collection is open to the public daily from 10am to 6pm and is free to visit. I would encourage anyone to visit the college to enjoy this remarkable collection of women’s art, as well as the wonderful modern infrastructure and the beautiful water fountain on its grounds.

What is the Money Art Movement?

The Money Art Movement is an artistic practice that explores the concept of money or uses currency (whether coins or banknotes) as a medium to challenge ideas of value, power, and economic systems. By altering, repurposing, or defacing money, artists question its significance beyond financial worth, addressing themes like inequality, corruption, and the influence of capitalism on society.

In some cases, however, Money Art has emerged not purely as artistic expression but as a means of survival. During the recent period of hyperinflation in Venezuela (2016-2022), for instance, people who were not necessarily artists repurposed devalued banknotes, crafting objects like woven bags, bells, and hats to sell for dollars or trade for essential goods from the basic food basket (BBC, Sep 2018); (NTN24 Video in Spanish, 2018).

Money Art has gained momentum as artists explore how money can represent more than just wealth. By transforming banknotes into statements, artists redefine their meaning, often making a political or social critique. Examples include:

• J.S.G. Boggs, who famously hand-drew his own currency and used it in transactions to question the nature of money and value.
• Susan Stockwell, a British artist who uses upcycled currency and everyday domestic and manufacturing products to create powerful artworks exploring feminism, materiality, and social history.
• Alec Monopoly, an American street artist who critiques wealth and capitalism through pop culture icons like Mr. Monopoly and Richie Rich, reflecting on the influence of corporate greed and excess without using real currency in his work.
• Venezuelan artists: I’d also like to acknowledge the Venezuelan artists who turned devalued banknotes into a means of survival and protest against hyperinflation, like Jose Luis Leon, Jeean Franko (work in picture below), Rubby Cobain, among others. Their creativity and courage inspired me to join the Money Art Movement and bring Venezuelan bills to Europe to raise awareness of the country’s economic crisis and its devastating impact on the population.

How did you come up with the idea of tearing up Venezuelan banknotes?

For the past six years, I’ve been working with Venezuelan money as an artistic element, exploring its potential beyond its "financial" value. During this time, I’ve seen artists use banknotes in all sorts of creative ways - painting on them, using them as canvases, creating garments, and sculpting figures. But I noticed a gap, there is not collective work that used money to create something with real social impact. It’s fascinating for me to see how people often collaborate on projects to earn money, but rarely to transform it into a shared artistic statement.

I felt it was time to invite the collective to rethink the value of money and saw tearing it apart as a powerful, symbolic act, one that breaks from the past and opens space for something new. Once people tear the notes apart, they can repurpose them into something fresh and meaningful.

This idea truly came to life last year when I was invited to deliver a workshop at Queen’s College of the University of Cambridge. I then decided to use this approach of tearing the money up to make collages. I was amazed by the students' engagement. They completed their group’s collage in under 20 minutes and shared how impactful it felt to physically tear the money while learning about underrepresented issues. Their enthusiasm and the depth of the conversations sparked by this process inspired me to expand the workshop to the wider Cambridge community.

My experience with the Money-Dresses I’ve created and presented has shown me how repurposing money into visual statements can draw attention to important causes in an engaging and thought-provoking way. By transforming money into art, it becomes a medium for storytelling and advocacy, capable of addressing complex social and political issues with a fresh perspective. Here’s a blog that shares my experience with the Hyperinflation Money Dress presented to the MSt in Social Innovation class at the Cambridge Judge Business School (CCSI, April 2019).

What are you hoping to achieve through your Artivism workshops during the Cambridge Festival?

There is so much I hope to achieve through my ARTivism and Money-Art workshops at the Cambridge Festival that I’ve had to make a list! But if I manage to accomplish even half of it, I’ll feel my mission has been fulfilled. Through these workshops, I want to engage participants in a creative and thought-provoking exploration of value, activism, and social change, fully embodying the concept of repurposing money for social good. More specifically, I hope to:

• Encourage critical thinking about money, worth, and the systems that shape our society.
• Raise awareness of Venezuela’s socio-political, economic, and ecological struggles, connecting them to global issues. For this year’s festival, I’ll be addressing the impact of illegal gold mining in the Venezuelan Amazon rainforest, a practice driven by the relentless pursuit of wealth at the cost of environmental destruction.
• Demonstrate the power of ARTivism by showing how art can be a medium for activism, storytelling, and impact. Through this collective artistic process, my hope is that we will create an image of nature that both raises awareness of ecological harm and supports the work of Stop Ecocide International - an organization striving to make ecocide an international crime. Ideally, this collage will become part of an exhibition in galleries or museums.
• Inspire action, whether through creative expression, activism, or rethinking personal values.
• Foster collaboration and dialogue by bringing people together to share ideas and reflect on how they would use £1 million for social change.

Ultimately, my goal is to transform the Venezuela banknotes into a tool for dialogue, reflection, and activism. Deconstructing money is both symbolic and can be therapeutic as well, challenging our perception of worth and inviting conversations about resource mismanagement, inequality, and resilience.