How Art and Media can be a Compass for Change with Amplifier’s Aaron Huey

“If we hold this art and carry it in front of us, if we hang it on our walls or in our windows every day for our family and neighbors and students to see, then we remind ourselves of what we are building, and we find strength when we get tired.” — Aaron Huey, Amplifier Founder and Creative Director

Aaron Huey, photo credit @Amplifier

In the current political climate, it can be difficult to get your message through to an audience in a way that makes a meaningful impact. We live in a world where we are completely overwhelmed with photographs and have become numb to even the most powerful imagery.

But something about the power of art, illustration and text-based work, when put together well and in unexpected places, can stop people. It can stop the swiping, the scanning and doom scrolling and make us pay attention. 

Aaron Huey is the founder and creative director of Amplifier, a nonprofit design lab that builds media campaigns to amplify the most important movements of our times. They do that by drawing from a diverse portfolio of artists to commission powerful visual storytelling, then distribute it in unparalleled numbers through any medium necessary, reaching huge audiences and driving real change. Huey says, “Art has the power to stop people in the streets, to wake them up on their way to work, or school.”

It’s the reason physicality is so important to many of Amplifier’s campaigns. Even when approached with digital campaigns, Amplifier always tries to build in a physical element. 

“Seeing this kind of art in physical form is different because it keeps transmitting that message of where we're supposed to be going, showing the world we want to live in, and who is leading the way,” says Huey. “Art gives us symbols to gather around.  It builds community, and helps us feel like we’re not alone. It can be a bridge that can unite movements with shared values in ways other mediums can't.”

Teens Take Action, photo credit @Amplifier

The Power of Action

Amplifier wasn’t plotted with a plan or a blueprint to create a grassroots organization. It was born out of a storytelling experiment when Huey, whose photographs can be found in places like the National Geographic magazines (where he has created over 30 features), the New Yorker, the Smithsonian, and the New York Times, was asked to do a TED talk in 2010 about travel photography. He felt he had hit a ceiling in photojournalism and that many of the stories he was covering needed advocacy, not just witnessing. Huey decided instead to talk for 13 minutes about the North American genocide of Native Peoples and the violation of treaty rights. 

What was supposed to be just a ”little regional TED Talk” got put up on TED’s main platform, the Honor The Treaties campaign, which teamed up with renowned artists like Shephard Fairey and Ernesto Yerena Montejano, has garnered millions of views over the years. To Huey, this was the catalyst and the beginning groundwork for Amplifier was laid.              

Human Issues 

Amplifier is a nonprofit media lab building visual campaigns to amplify the most important movements of our times. Built on a foundation of free and open source art, they give communities the chance to get out messages about human issues— social justice, public health and safety, and the environment—bypassing traditional media channels and instead getting creative about how those messages are making their way into the world.

“We’ve now worked with 10,000 artists, but it’s always about amplifying movements,” says Huey. “The artists and the organizations are the experts, not us. We are here to amplify the groups that have been working on the ground for decades and help them create new visual storytelling to do their work.” 

Huey says Amplifier stayed small until 2016, that election it changed everything. 

“Everything in this country changed and it changed the course of my life because I had not planned on spending the next eight years working on campaigns like this,” he says.

But even when he’s not sure how to have an impact, Huey looks to the artists. He says, “A lot of the work is in recognizing who has the energy and the talent to translate these incredibly complex topics into something that can move the needle and get people to participate, whether it's to vote or to show up in any way.”

Amplifier’s response to 2016 and continued political divisiveness: We The People, a non-partisan campaign dedicated to igniting a national dialogue about American identity and values through public art and storytelling. This campaign ultimately launched Education Amplifier, a network of tens of thousands of educators reaching more than 10 million students with the art they have distributed nationwide. Additionally, everything Amplifier has ever made is available for free, high-resolution download here.

A Compass for Change

Huey says Amplifier doesn’t make any work that says “no” or “this is what we don't want.” The organization instead focuses on making work that says what we do want, a compass pointing to where we’re supposed to be going and what kind of world we want for ourselves and our children. That of course gets a lot harder in a political year with threats to democracy, but Huey tries to see Amplifier as representing the light because the threats are so dangerous. Amplifier is building tools that will help young people understand the extremes of our new media environment, and fighting back by teaching media literacy. 

“In a way that is a kind of a compass,” explains Huey. “A way to know what is real and not real. And that is a compass in the storm of misinformation and disinformation. We try to find the light even in these extreme threats to our democratic institutions, like all the shining lights within Native communities that are doing the walking and riding to the polls, and we're supporting lots of those efforts through five or six organizations right now.”

Alongside its partners at Good Trouble Collaborative, Amplifier is mobilizing students from over 100 community colleges in its We The Future campaign, a nationwide initiative to increase youth voter registration and turnout, powered by the voices and actions of high school and community college students. In an election where the youth vote may play a decisive role in the outcome—young voter registration is up nearly 74% overall, with young women voter registration up nearly 84%—engaging and motivating participation amongst young Americans is key. 

Education Amplifier, Photo Credit @Amplifier

Additionally, Amplifier launched its first ever Democracy Fellowship to shine a light on threats to democratic institutions in the United States as voter rights are under attack in the run-up to the election. Huey says that photography and democracy share a dynamic relationship. Huey says, “As newsrooms across the country close their doors and the spread of misinformation and disinformation rises, we are stepping in to fill this critical gap.”  

Why it’s Important to Participate

“It’s important to participate because if I don’t, my kids are going to suffer and the world around us is toast,” he laments. And yet, Huey and his team continue the work to amplify those on the ground with something to say—and something to fight for.

Huey continues, “The why often transcends our own personal exhaustion and belief sets to say that there is a world bigger than ourselves that we have to keep working for in our children, in our neighborhoods and communities. Because I may not be able to keep doing this, but I hope that the work will inspire others to pick it up when I'm too tired or I'm gone. There are a lot of us working on this, and I think when one of us, or even many of us, gets down or exhausted, there's enough momentum that the movement just keeps going.”

With Amplifier and the thousands of artists who have joined its forces along the way, it’s a bright reminder that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Not simply a community or an electorate; we are a part of a common humanity worth fighting for. 

“When we think about election years and voting, we are voting with so many kinds of actions,” says Huey. “It's not just about that date in November. It's about all the ways we vote by showing up for things. Even if we're tired, we're still showing up.”

Amplifier WTF Kickstarter, photo credit @Amplifier

Artist posters featured include: Kayla Jones “Power To The Polls,” Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya “Our Vote Our Future,” Tracie Ching “Ride To The Polls,” Thomas Wimberly “Our Voice.”

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