Exactly two years ago, a horde of torch-wielding white nationalists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a local park.

Can art change the world? American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey (1859 – 1952) certainly thought so. Dewey's progressive politics and their relationship to art, more specifically how they illustrate social practice art as an aesthetic experience, are the focus of Chicago-based curator Mary Jane Jacob's new book, Dewey for Artists.