Advancing Advocacy through Social Justice Art, Vicki Rosenthal, MSW

Social justice artist, Vicki Rosenthal, will share her journey from growing up in the Deep South to starting her advocacy art business 5 years ago. She’ll describe her driving forces and intentions into art advocacy projects, collaborations, stumbling blocks, and processes that have created a strong business foundation. She believes the opportunities and creative innovations are endless for those whose purpose is to advance advocacy through their art. With this presentation, Vicki hopes to spur inspiring project ideas and conversations as we continue to try to alleviate inequities in our world.

About the Speaker

Vicki Rosenthal, MSW

Vicki Rosenthal is a creative of social justice advancing advocacy through art using authentic stories to create understanding and equity. This visual artist focuses on social impact through community involvement projects, public art, and individual custom work. Additionally, for artwork sold, 10% of net profits are invested back to grassroots causes.

In her childhood, Vicki learned various art forms and techniques, and exhibited and sold paintings in her teens. Always painting for pleasure, she worked a variety of jobs, until earning a master’s degree in social work. With this qualification, her experience expanded to nonprofits for HIV/AIDS and anti-human trafficking advocacy and education. She taught and developed macro social work curriculum at Florida Atlantic University, and all the while continued to create art projects and paintings. In 2018, her social work focus and art talent came together to form Vicki Rosenthal Art, a cohesive social impact art business.

This year, she illustrated her first children’s book, and has an ongoing exhibition at Plunge Beach Resort in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. In February 2023, she created and curated a month-long exhibition on immigration justice, Walk In My Shoes, at the Ethel M. Gordon Library, Oakland Park, FL.

She was awarded a 2021-22 Broward Cultural Division (BCD) Artist Support Grant creating a community art project and wall mural installed at the newly constructed LA Lee YMCA / Mizell Community Center. She gave a presentation as an invited guest speaker at the 2022 “BCD Business Skills for the Modern Creator Institute” as a BCD Artist as Entrepreneur alumnus, and showed at three artists’ exhibitions.

Besides painting, creating projects, and curating exhibitions to bring empathy and change to social justice issues, Vicki Rosenthal continually advocates and volunteers on these issues, including assisting people persecuted in their home countries and seeking protection in the U.S.

Presently, Vicki is working with asylum seekers who want to share their stories offering the public greater understanding of firsthand persecution, bringing more acceptance towards asylum seekers, and challenging biased news media. Asylum seekers hope to create awareness and empathy towards their plight in order to live their lives with autonomy and self-sufficiency.

You can find more information about Vicki Rosenthal on her Website, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

Sponsors: Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation