Beehive Arts and Education (previously “Beehive Design Collective”)
Created in 2001 under the old name “Beehive Design Collective,” Beehive Arts and Education works on both local and global projects, creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. They work as word-to-image translators of complex global stories from conversations with affected communities, which are enlivened and disseminated through art. Beehive works anonymously, crediting every graphic they make to the collective as a whole. Beehive distributes graphics via sliding-scale donations, and redistribute roughly half of the printed materials to frontline communities, educators, and organizers actively working on the issues depicted in their posters. Beehive builds and disseminate these visual tools with the hope that their activist messaging and iconography will self-replicate, and take on life of their own.
The work of Beehive Arts and Education is multidisciplinary and multifaceted. They are most recognized for their expansive narrative graphics campaigns and for their community-organizing efforts between local groups. They create graphics, share stories, tour with their work, connect with local to global efforts, and work collectively with other organizations and activists. As in the visual language in Beehive’s narrative posters, everything flows. There is no way to separate the various areas of artivist work they do—everything intersects and no element stands isolated.
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Resources
MAAP x Beehive 2025 Interview
Interviews:
“Art Against Empire: The Beehive Collective Discusses Global Economic Policy through Pictures.” Clamor, By Arthur Stamoulis, Issue 24, January/February 2004, pp. 58-61, clamormagazine.org/issue/jan-feb-2004.
Bee, Emma. “Beehive Collective Joins The Intervention.” Counterspill, By Carly Gillis, 29 July 2011, www.counterspill.org/article/beehive-collective-joins-intervention.
Bee, Lara. “Drawing Common Ground: An Interview with Lara Bee of the Beehive Design Collective.” Upping the Anti, Issue 12, 16 August 2017, uppingtheanti.org/journal/article/12-drawing-common-ground.
Saunders, Sakura. Interview by Abby Betts. Mapping Artistic Activism Project, 15 April 2025, drive.google.com/file/d/13M5E8bLkugqC_FliBNWaxc6A9GPdnpqL/view?usp=drivesdk.
Books:
Elizabeth, Lynne, and Suzanne Young. Works of Heart: Building Village Through the Arts. New Village Press, 2006.
Glaser, Milton and Mirko Ilić. The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics. Rockport Publishers, 2006.
Rodriguez, Favianna and Josh MacPhee. Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate. Soft Skull Press, 2008.
Articles:
Antonetta, Susanne Paola. “Metaphor Crafters.” Orion, 23 February 2012, orionmagazine.org/article/metaphor-crafters/.
“Cross-pollinating the Grassroots with the Beehive Design Collective.” Earth First!, vol. 23, no. 6, 2003, pp. 38-41, www.environmentandsociety.org/sites/default/files/key_docs/ef_23_6_3.pdf.
Hoffman, Hank. “The Beehive Collective.” In These Times, 19 November 2003, inthesetimes.com/article/the-beehive-collective.
Luis, Marcos. “Activists use art to showcase effects of globalization.” Yale Daily News, 21 October 2003, yaledailynews.com/blog/2003/10/21/activists-use-art-to-showcase-effects-of-globalization/.
Moretto, Mario. “Beehive Collective adds giant poster to anti-globalization arsenal.” Bangor Daily News, 9 December 2012, www.bangordailynews.com/2012/12/09/news/beehive-collective-adds-giant-poster-to-anti-globalization-arsenal/.
Archive:
“Reviving the Hive: A Journey of Art, Activism, and Education with the Beehive Collective.” Carnegie Mellon University, 7 Sep. 2024, https://www.cmu.edu/cas/events/2024-25/fall/beehive.html.
More Information
IMPORTANT: Profile pages for all collectives are in permanent development and have been built using information in the public domain. They will be updated progressively and in dialogue with the organizations by the end of 2024. New features and sections will be included in 2025, like featured videos, and additional featured projects. Please contact us if you discover errors. For more information on mapping criteria and to submit your organization’s information to be potentially included in the database, visit this page