Steven Lambert
Associate Professor of New Media
Steve Lambert has worked alongside artists and activists in 21 countries on 6 continents helping them to effect power. Trained in the arts, he is known for large scale, public projects that engage new audiences on difficult topics through the social sciences, comedy, games, theater, and democratic participation. Lambert is also the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Artistic Activism, a research and training institute that helps people use their creativity and culture to effect power.
More About Me
As an artist, Lambert’s work has been shown everywhere from art galleries to protest marches to Times Square, both nationally and internationally, featured in six documentary films, and over two dozen books, and multiple museums. Lambert has presented at the United Nations several times. His research is included in a United Nations report on the impact of advertising on cultural rights and his research is the basis of a book on popular understandings of capitalism.
Over the past five years he’s focused on working with sex workers on campaigns for human rights, advocating for harm reduction in response to the Opioid Crisis, battling pharmaceutical corporations over pricing and access to life saving medicines, and working to ensure voting is accessible, safe, and fun.
He is as an Associate Professor of New Media at SUNY Purchase College and co-author of The Art of Activism: Your All Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible.
He and his work were featured at the 2025 Zürichur Theater Spektakel.
Publications
The Art of Activism: Your All Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible
Co-authored with Stephen Duncombe (a Purchase alum). O/R Books, 2022.
Presentations / Conferences
- 2023
- Lecture | RISD Center for Complexity, Public Practice series
- 2022
- Artists Now! Guest Lecture | University of Wisconsin, Madision
- The Art of Activism with Steve Duncombe | Marxist Education Project, New York
- The Art of Activism with Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert | Puffin Interview Series for New York Society for Ethical Culture
- Steve Lambert and Stephen Duncombe present The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible in conversation with Marlène Ramírez-Cancio | Greenlight Books, NY
- 2021
- MASS Art Sustainability Initiative Lecture | MASS Art
- 2020
- Talk | frank gathering, Center for Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida
- Lecture | Global Change Days
- Now and There Asks: “Is arts activism enough?” | Now and There, Boston
- 2019
- Keynote | NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Dundee, Scotland
- Workshop | Camp Camp, Chisinau, Moldova
- 2018
- Workshop | Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale
- Workshop | Guerilla Science Conference, Brooklyn NY
- Acting Out: Art that Changes the World (panel) | The Wheeler Center, Melbourne, Australia
- Keynote for The 13th International Conference on Art and Society | Emily Carr University
- Keynote for Cancel the Apocalypse | Re:Publica, Berlin
- SolarPunk and going Post?Post?Apocalyptic Panel | Re:Publica, Berlin
- Building Fearless Futures | Re:Publica, Berlin
- Conversation with Emily Sexton | State Library Victoria, Australia
- Visiting Artist Lecture | Museum of Contemporary Art, Macedonia
- Panel and workshop | Museum of Contemporary Art, Macedonia
- Conversation with Sharon Louden at 21C Museum Hotel in Lexington KY
- Opening talk, with Stephen Duncombe, Artistic Activism: Connecting Social Activism and Artistic Practice, Philanthropy New York
- 2017
- Closing Speaker | Eyeo Festival
- Art, Story, Affect | Eyeo Festival
- “The Impact and Evaluation of Artistic Activism,” opening introduction, with Stephen Duncombe, and panel chair, Artistic Activism: Connecting Social Activism and Artistic Practice | Philanthropy New York, New Nork, NY, March 30, 2017
- “New Ways to Communicate about Old Institutions,” with Stephen Duncombe, invited presentation, United Nations Arts and Culture Exchange, United Nations, New York, NY, January 26, 2017.
- Artist as Cultural Producer book launch and reading | Strand Bookstore
- “When Art Claims to do Good” | Co-chair of panel with Elizabeth Grady, CAA Conference
- Shantz Visiting Artist Lecture | University of Waterloo
- 2016
- “Artistic Activism,” with Stephen Duncombe, invited presentation, Comhlámh Center, Dublin, Ireland, December 18, 2016.
- “Collective Knowledge,” with Stephen Duncombe, invited panelist, Art, Politics and Cities in Transition conference, AIANY/Center for Architecture, New York, NY, October 21, 2016.
- Performance | Talkies Roundup at Roxie Theater, San Francisco
- Performance | CATCH at the Hudson Basilica
- AIGA Presents: Stephen Duncombe – Dreaming Bigger Than Clients | Reno Museum of Art
- Keynote Address | Vivid Festival, Sydney Australia
- Panel Discussion | Vivid Festival, Sydney Australia
- Connecticut College | Visiting Artist Lecture/Economics Panel Discussion