Bruno de Oliveira Jayme: Art, Activism, and the Power of Creative Dissent
On this episode of Humans, On Rights, we sit down with Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, a Brazilian-born artist, educator, and community arts practitioner who has spent 25 years making Canada his home. Now a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, Bruno brings together curriculum theory, arts-based research, and a deep commitment to social justice. His work explores what happens when art stops being decoration and starts becoming dissent.
Bruno introduces us to the concept of "artivism" — the intersection of art and activism — and makes the case that creative expression is not a softer substitute for protest, but a distinct and powerful tool for surfacing stories, building collective identity, and opening space for conversations that more traditional forms of advocacy often can't reach.
We're discussing:
- How Bruno's upbringing in Brazil during the end of a military dictatorship first opened his eyes to art as a political force
- The roots of community art and artivism in the social movements of the late 1960s and '70s — from the Black movement and second-wave feminism to the landless movement in Latin America
- Why art is uniquely capable of addressing difficult issues "in a light manner" — and why that accessibility matters for movements like environmental justice
- His advice to aspiring artivist students: start with what you know, what you're struggling with, what you're hopeful for. Bring that to your community, and think together, collectively, about what you can do next.
Bruno's website (edited)
