“Art is a really powerful way of drawing attention to issues and (it) always has been,” Berkeley High School senior and co-president of the BHS Mural Club Carina Nottingham said.
On Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, BHS students, including members of the Mural Club, came together to create a mural protesting Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) during BHS’s most recent walkout. The mural was designed and executed by co-president and BHS senior Sydney Fair, along with other students. They utilized imagery like monarch butterflies, and carefully decided on the colors and words.
“The message is (to) see the human heart behind everyone in a world where it’s so easy to demonize the other side and to further this sort of polarization,” Fair said.
The purpose of the mural was to express solidarity in light of the recent ICE raids, and use voices to spread a powerful message. While a beautiful and symbolic mural, this is actually not the first mural that students at BHS have created. During the “Make Polluters Pay” protest in November of 2025, BHS mural club members also came together to paint a colorful mural on the street to remind the community about the importance of protecting our environment and earth.
“The Mural Club is really amazing,” BHS freshman Enzo Trautman said, who worked on both murals, “Art can be a really valuable way of protesting for students, especially since it leaves a physical mark.”
For centuries, art has been used as an important tool of self expression. While political art can be a visually appealing form of protest, art also has the ability to deeply express messages when words cannot. Art also serves as a way to bridge different communities, providing an outlet for artists and activists to share a message that they strongly believe in.
In today’s society, art with political purposes can be found in museums, exhibits, online, and posters and signs at protests all across the world. Symbolic murals and graffiti are painted on buildings and streets nearly everywhere — whether they be in paint, chalk, or other mediums. As the political tensions of our world continue to rise, so does the mainstream prevalence of artists using their creations for means of political activism. However, the use of art as a form of activism is not a modern phenomenon, rather it holds important historic significance that has only grown today.
In the 1800s, Spanish painter Francisco Goya was known for his paintings and prints often being provocative in nature. Goya is considered to be one of the first predominantly political artists, as he chose to explore and represent the brutal realities of war, rather than glorifying it. In one of his most famous print series, “The Disasters of War,” Goya depicted images of what it was like to live as an ordinary person under an oppressive rule. This was particularly important at the time, as it was extremely uncommon for artists to reject their political leaders.
“Art is a really good way to talk to people about different issues,” Troutman said, “It’s easier to look at a piece of art and be like, ‘wow, this is beautiful and this has a message to it’ than to have someone just telling you the reasons.”
For centuries, art was largely reserved for the elite, often used as a status symbol for wealth. But in the 20th century, that began to change, with artists like Mexico’s Diego Rivera or German visual artist John Heartfield, whose art was specifically created for the regular public’s consumption. For Rivera, that included painting murals in largely public settings — such as schools or factories. Heartfield, on the other hand, took apart magazines and newspapers to protest Nazi propaganda and anti-semitism. His photomontages were often distributed by hand throughout the streets of Berlin. These artists, among others, paved the way for modern artists like Banksy, who is known internationally for his provocative public art installations. By using the attention of the people, he spread his anti-war and anti-establishment beliefs.
Art is a powerful platform for activism because it can trigger a real emotional response for the audience. Unlike words, which exist in the binary, art is deeply rooted in creativity and free expression, subverting what is considered the standard and forcing viewers to think critically.
“The purpose of my art is to make people feel how I feel through visual representation,” BHS junior Sitara Fan said, “Art is important, and I think it can change people’s perspectives or make people think about what they’re saying.”
Fan has used art to directly respond to issues that personally affect her. She has created paintings and murals that have even been used in local coffee shops. Her works are an outlet for frustration at what is happening in the world, whether that be through posters, paintings, or even sew on patches.
“Art is accessible, you don’t have to know how to read to understand a political statement in a painting or drawing,” Fan said, “But I want people to feel the intensity of what I’m feeling.”
As an empowering tool that has held an important place in political activism for centuries, art is a unique form of expression that is not limited or defined by the boundaries of language, but rather one that can be communicated universally.