Creative corner
Welcome to the Creative Corner. This space is dedicated to sharing our work—successes, missteps, and everything in between—so others can learn, adapt, and build on it. Alongside project highlights, we include how-to guidance for groups who want to replicate or remix what we’ve created.
None of this work is copyrighted. Everything here is meant to be freely shared in the fight against fascism.
We now have a comment interactive feature, to encourage open exchange of ideas and collective problem-solving. At the bottom of this page please feel free to enter comments, suggestions or questions. Be sure to include the action listed so we can respond appropriately.
Longer term, we plan to launch a blog that serves as a platform for documenting, refining, and cross-pollinating creative protest strategies.
Paper mache heads
Led by Elise, a former community theater costume designer, the Creative Resisting team came together to create oversized Season 27 South Park character heads—turning pop culture satire into a visible act of resistance for Boston’s Labor Day Parade in 2025. Elise dug into DIY research from the Coolest Homemade Costumes website, proving that powerful visual protest doesn’t require big budgets.
We transformed a backyard poolside into a pop-up studio, embracing creative chaos—space to get messy, spread out materials, and collectively choose fabrics that brought the characters (and the message) to life.
Some lessons learned.....
Spend time before the event setting up the inside "cap" that holds the costume head steady and aligned properly. We tried using a bike helmet inside the head (See Mr. Makey helping Kyle to adjust his head), thinking it would be easier to see. This did not work as the weight of the head kept making it tilt.
If you are located in the Boston area a great place to get FREE fabric is VDA, Inc in Somerville. They are an experiential and event design agency, who make custom fabrication for backdrops at trade shows or exhibits. After a show many times the materials are not retained by the customer...VDA has made this material FREE to community artists and theaters via their VDA Re-purposing Initiative. When items become available they are posted on the FaceBook page called VAD Re-purposing Initiative #VDAGIVESBACK, so interested parties can take on first come basis
Below is a brief step by step list on how to make a paper mache costume head.
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Inflate a punch ball balloon
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Cover with 5 layers of newspaper strips and paper mache paste
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Last layer is done with grocery bag strips
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Pop balloon & cut out opening at bottom to allow placement over your head
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Paint entire head flesh tone
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Use either the eyes or the mouth of character to provide ability to see
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Paint face and add hair, glasses, and hats as needed
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Use cotton batting, foam or cardboard to fashion "cap' inside the head for your head to fit into to hold the paper mache head straight
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Use pool noodle or small foam tube at the bottom of head for comfort & stabilization
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Pull together a costume to match the character
Sky Art - attempted
CONCEPT: Not an actual photograph
Boston was selected as an anchor site for the October 18 No Kings II rally, bringing the expectation of significant media coverage. The No Kings II Steering Committee invited Creative Resisting to help “paint the protest sky” for helicopter and drone footage. We took on an ambitious design challenge: creating flip-style puzzle panels with protest messaging on one side and pieces of a larger No Kings logo on the other. CRT’s research team quickly determined that for aerial visibility, letters would need to be at least 36 inches tall to be legible from 1,500 feet—the minimum altitude for helicopter coverage. The picture above is depicting the concept/idea on what we hoped could be picked up by the media.
Given those constraints, the team shifted from text-heavy designs to bold imagery, believing images would read more clearly from above. After encountering logistical and implementation challenges, we abandoned the idea of a homemade protest sign on one side flipping to the crown altogether. Instead, we focused on creating an organic, evolving visual presence across the Common during the rally, settling on the No Kings logo paired with a melting ice cube image.
In practice, helicopters were unable to fly directly over the rally due to restrictions on flying above large crowds, limiting their shots to the perimeter. After reviewing multiple overhead news feeds, the most visible elements appeared as concentrated areas of orange—possibly fragments of the crown logo—but the full images did not resolve as hoped.
The Creative Resisting team is deeply grateful for the many hands, energy, and enthusiasm shared at the No Kings II rally on October 18. While the sky art didn’t land on broadcast footage as intended, the project was a meaningful experiment that generated hard-earned lessons for future actions.
And all was not lost. The panels have since been repurposed for ground-based actions, including local standouts and bridge brigades. We added new artwork to the melting ice cube and reconfigured the No Kings panels for maximum street-level impact—where protest art continues to meet people face to face.
Umbrella Art - considered
Alongside the Sky Art panels, the team experimented with using umbrellas to spell out a message—borrowing from tactics commonly used in bridge brigades. The concept called for two teams positioned near the stage, alternating umbrella displays to reveal different messages.
As shown above, a standard umbrella has a 42-inch diameter, but once the curved canopy is factored in, usable surface space shrinks by about two inches. The painted letter “B” was stretched to overlap the arch to maximize visibility, yet in practice the top and bottom of the letter were difficult to see. We considered switching to larger golf umbrellas, which range from 42 to 57 inches in diameter. Ultimately, we ruled out that option: clear readability requires letters to be close together, and holding oversized umbrellas in a dense rally setting raised real stability and safety concerns.
That said, we love the concept of umbrella protesting. The team agreed to keep it in our bag of tricks, waiting for the right event and conditions to deploy it effectively. Below are examples of umbrella actions from other protests that inspired our experimentation.
Stenciling Sidewalk & Street Chalking
How to
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Either create message in a google doc to print out to trace it OR
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Stencil message directly on the plastic board
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Use an exact knife to cut our the letters for the message from the plastic board
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Place newly created chalk stencil on sidewalk is desired location
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Shake spray chalk can then spray over the stencil using a sweeping motion
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Make sure that your spray chalk product states it is washable, Goofy Foot Designs is.
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We have found some of the liquid chalk pencils are NOT washable
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Spray chalk is easier/quicker to apply versus chalk sticks
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Carefully remove the stencil from the sidewalk
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Some groups have suggested spraying the chalking with hair spray to prolong how long the chalked image remains
At the July 17th Good Trouble protest on Liberty Square on the Boston Common, Kat and her team took to the sidewalks.
Supplies needed:
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Plastic posterboard clear (Michaels)
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Exacto knife
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Sharpie
Mass50501 Art Activist Kat introduced Chalking as a new way to send messages to the public & elected officials.
Paper image of message to be use for tracing onto the clear plastic poster board
For more info on how to get started Check out Mass50501's Chalking Guide on their blog
Check out more Activist Art from members of Mass50501 here.
Visibility Bridge Brigades
The very first Visibility Brigade model was born in Paramus, NJ in 2020 out of a frustration due to the lack of physical messaging in the real world regarding the existential crisis we face as a nation.
People need “social proof” to know how best to act and Visibility Brigade deliver this weekly. What began as one Visibility Brigade over Route 4 in Paramus, New Jersey, has now grown into a nationwide movement of over 350 groups and counting.
The Framingham bridge brigade was started in March 2025 by Metro Boston Indivisible Coalition. It quickly grew by inviting Framingham Fights Back and Weekly Sunday Night Huddle (local independent grassroots org) to join. We have built a vibrant bridge community, we sing, were costumes, and collect food for local pantries. This is the best place to welcome new protestors and a great place to catch up on what's happening in metro west.
Framingham Bridge Brigade participates with Visibility Brigades nationwide campaigns. Join the Visibility Brigade here, or
Sign up for the Visibility Brigade National Movement mailing list
Want to start your own bridge brigade? Check out Visibility Brigade's comprehensive toolkit here
Use this link to the MBIC guide on how to make bridge signs.
Check back frequently for new ideas!
Let us know if you have an idea to share on our site
What's resonating.....
We welcome your ideas, feedback, and questions. Fellow activists—please use the comment section below to share suggestions, lessons learned, or creative twists of your own. Guest comments are encouraged, and collective knowledge makes us stronger.
@ Melanie... thank you for posting several images of your protest art. Wanted to let you know that we have made the decision to not include images in the comments as it slows the performance of the page and takes up too much screen space. We are investigating other ways to allow sharing images in a more efficient fashion & will implement if one is identified.
I love your work!! Can you add stencils for street chalking?
Would love a simple sewing pattern for a handmaid's costume and a Statue of Liberty costume.