Our School for Strategic Creativity: Building the power to spark change in the Western Balkans

In response to the concerning trend of shrinking space for civil society across the Western Balkans and beyond, Fine Acts launched the pilot edition of The School for Strategy Creativity, our groundbreaking academy on innovative approaches to creative campaigning and communications. 

The first edition of the School, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, spanned a year and engaged 20 leading civil society organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, to embrace strategic creativity in their social mission. 

Photo: Participants and mentors in the third module of The School for Strategic Creativity.

The School for Strategic Creativity encompassed three extensive, highly interactive modules. The initiative focused on equipping participants with innovative methods for audience engagement, utilizing art, play, hope, and creativity as powerful tools for advocacy and campaigning. Throughout the program, participants were introduced to core concepts and insights related to the science behind what makes people care, playtivism, and hope as a pragmatic strategy (see more about hope-based comms). 

“The School provided us with a break from our routine, shifting our minds to rethink and potentially restructure some of the communication patterns we are holding to.”

— Vladan Đukanović, Humanitarian Law Center (Serbia)

The first module explored the significance of visual communication for nonprofits. Participants delved into the why and how of visual framing, gaining insights into the profound impact of visual content on audience perception and engagement. Through interactive sessions and case studies, they learned to effectively utilize images to maximize impact and align visuals with overarching narratives.

“Learning how to effectively communicate complex ideas through visuals and creative strategies has equipped me with extra valuable skills that I can apply in various aspects of work.”

— Hyrije Mehmeti, Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (Kosovo)

The second module of the School focused on the intersection of art, creativity, and activism in campaigning. Participants learned to use the emotional power of art to drive social change while strategically planning creative campaigns for long-term impact. They acquired practical knowledge and skills to improve their advocacy efforts – frequently hindered by media control, negative perceptions of civil society organizations, and resource constraints – through lectures, discussions, interactive exercises, and real-world examples.

“One key takeaway from The School for Strategic Creativity was harnessing the power of art and creativity as tools for communication and expression. [This was] a significant skill I developed during the training. Engaging art into campaigns and creations not only adds depth, but also enables effective storytelling and connection with audiences on a deeper level. This skill has since positively impacted both my professional work and personal life. ”

— Irina Vijatović, Civic Initiatives (Serbia)

The final in-person module – the Creative Playground – took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, in Resonator, one of the most innovative creative spaces in the city. For it, we brought together a select group of six organizations to develop and accelerate their creative campaign ideas to promote civil rights and democratic values across the Western Balkans.

Over two intensive days, our bootcamp participants worked on problem definition, ideation and mapping out a sound campaign strategy. Guided by a pool of mentors and experts from the communications, human rights, advertising and creative fields, participants deep dived into brainstorming techniques and exercises to refine their ideas, embed creative hooks, and craft narratives and slogans, with the potential to engage citizens. 

“The most valuable aspect was the approach The School offered us with plenty of research-based resources, tools, and artistic and commercial references we can immediately put into practice.”

— Ema Štefanac, Civic Initiatives (Serbia) 

This third in-person module served as a culmination of the training program, allowing participants to put theory into practice under the guidance of experienced professionals.

In between the modules, participants also received tailored individual 1:1 consultations regarding campaign ideas, social media strategy, communications etc. In the weeks after the event in Sofia, the participants of the School were also offered the opportunity to be further mentored by Fine Acts, and the external experts, through dedicated online consultations.

“Attending The School for Strategic Creativity was genuinely an unforgettable experience for me, significantly broadening my horizons and offering new perspectives on the utilization of artistry and activism. Previously, I hadn’t considered the practical application of art in everyday work—at least not in my current role—but this program has entirely reversed my outlook. The structure of the school itself was exceptional, and we were well-equipped with theoretical knowledge before diving into practical work, which led me to discover many new things.”

— Biljana Popović, Center for Development of Non-governmental Organizations (Montenegro)

Fine Acts' School for Strategy Creativity provided civil society organizations in the Western Balkans with invaluable tools, knowledge, and mentorship to enhance their strategic communication capacity, effectiveness and visibility. "Art and creativity can bring us inspiration and motivation when everything else fails, and it can be the moving force to keep us going even when we think it is impossible," shared Ema.

15 artists unite in support of Ukraine

Together with our partners at Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), we launched a remarkable collection of illustrations on the topic of Reshape Europe – The Future of Ukraine to highlight hope and courage in the face of the ongoing conflict. It is part of Being Ukraine, our series of creative collaborations on the immense power and resilience of the Ukrainian people.

To create the collection, we brought together 15 talented artists from 9 European countries for SPRINTS, our creative bootcamps, in which visual artists are given a thrilling challenge: a mere 48 hours to conceptualize and craft compelling visual artworks that address a specific issue. 

The participating artists are as follows: Anina Takeff (Bulgaria/Germany), Carilla Karahan (Türkiye), Ieva Ragauskaitė (Lithuania), Janine Rwell (Finland), Judit Zengővári (Hungary), Maks Graur (Moldova/Romania), Marta Leshak (Ukraine), Olga Mrozek (Poland), Oksana Drachkovsk (Ukraine), Rozalina Burkova (Bulgaria), Tania Yakunova (Ukraine), Tanya Shyika (Ukraine), Teo Georgiev (Bulgaria/Finland), Tetiana Korniichuk (Ukraine/Lithuania), and Veta Yatsenko (Ukraine).

It is a critical time for democracy in Europe. Тoday, we find ourselves facing a new set of challenges that threaten to undermine the progress made so far – from the rise of war, authoritarianism and far-right leaders to the erosion of common democratic values in many countries within the EU and beyond. The SPRINTS initiative is part of FNF's global campaign #ReshapeEurope to strengthen Europe’s resilience. Together, we tapped into the potential of artists’ creativity and visionary talent to unleash hope and solidarity, while demonstrating the unwavering spirit of the Ukrainian people amidst the ongoing war. 

The resulting collection of 22 captivating illustrations – with versions in English and Ukrainian – is available online under a specific open license on TheGreats.co, our unique global platform dedicated to open-licensed socially engaged visuals. This means that activists, organizations, and educators around the world can freely use and adapt these artworks non-commercially for their communications and campaigns in support of Ukraine.

“In the fight for human rights, hope is not just a strategy; it's a promise of a brighter future. Our SPRINTS format brings together visual artists to create artworks on a specific human rights issue, rooted in hope. This serves to imagine our future and acts as a compass to take us there. The bootcamp is a unique platform for illustrators, graphic designers, and typographers to amplify their creative voices and contribute to meaningful societal dialogues,” says Fine Acts.

Artists were able to choose between two topics to work on – portray the remarkable resilience and courage of Ukrainian people in the face of conflict, highlighting everyday acts of resilience, heart, and strength, or depict and encourage solidarity across Europe by illustrating what support looks like, including donating, volunteering, and countering disinformation to humanitarian aid, and reaffirming acts of solidarity.

Exploring Iceland’s creative pulse

Embarking on a journey to the land of fire and ice, our visit to Iceland was a quest to delve into the very heartbeat of a nation, to meet pioneers of innovation and creativity, nestled within its nonprofits, creative communities, and industries. 

Our participation in the Active Citizens Fund under the EEA Financial Mechanism, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, took us to the island to explore how their unique experiences could be harnessed for crafting ingenious campaigns that spark change and ignite hearts. Over the course of a week, we probed potential partnerships, collaborations and learning opportunities with local nonprofits in the human rights and environmental sector as well as the established and emerging creative circles.

Meetup with Iceland’s human rights and environmental activists

On our first day, we met with our local partners the Icelandic Human Rights Centre, an independent organization that works to advance human rights through the promotion of research and education on and raising awareness of human rights issues in Iceland. Together, we hosted a meeting to connect with organisations working across Iceland on issues from LGBTIQ+ and women rights to refugees, disabilities, environmental protection and citizen engagement & democracy – including the Queer Alliance, Young Environmentalists, Disabilities Alliance, Women's Rights Association, and Hringsjá. 

After a short presentation of our work at the intersection of art and human rights and environmental issues – including the sharing of a wealth of resources for nonprofits such as our unique formats that engage artists in society’s key challenges, as well as our platform for free socially-engaged art TheGreats.co – we delved into the challenges in front of organisations in Iceland. They shared their experience working on creative campaigns, the practice of engaging artists, noting that they hadn’t fully explored this approach, and discussed their desire to expand their audience engagement and communications in new directions.

Our meeting left us all brimming with ideas for future mutual collaborations on socially-engaged art projects and creative campaigns, and potential trainings, which we can’t wait to explore. 

Tapping into the tech and ad minds of Iceland

Our visit also led us to connect with several tech companies in Iceland working with VR technologies. We spent an afternoon with Aldin, a pioneer in high-quality, believable reality experiences for people from all walks of life. Their goal is to leverage the unique power of the VR/AR medium and AI to inspire people to imagine new realities and experience things that have never been possible in history. They showcased the latest developments in the field, allowing us to do a live testing of their cornerstone game, and we discussed the possible applications of VR in social campaigns.

Next we met up with Gagarin, an Icelandic company that specializes in interactive multimedia and design. They provide services in areas such as exhibition design, interactive installations, multimedia production, and user experience design. Known for creating engaging and innovative experiences using technology, and design to convey information and tell stories, particularly around cultural heritage projects, together we explored avenues of combining our forces to create such experiences around human rights and environmental issues. 

Gagarin impressed us with their intricate and unique approach of working, often involving extensive research and the set up of cross-disciplinary teams. Having worked with numerous institutions and organizations such as Amnesty International, they have created large-scale exhibition sites such as Klimahuset, a new museum for climate change in Norway, to digital campaigns such as Our Atmosphere, that features an animation on how we can all influence emission figures in the fight against climate change. 

Visiting Iceland’s cultural institutions and galleries

On our following days, we submerged ourselves in the cultural scene to understand both the cultural landscape, the possibilities of engaging with Icelandic artists, and potential partnership areas. 

Our first stop was the Icelandic Art Center, a prominent institution dedicated to supporting and promoting contemporary visual art in Iceland. It serves as a hub for artistic exploration, innovation, and collaboration, both within Iceland and on the international stage. The center plays a vital role in nurturing the country's art scene and facilitating connections between Icelandic artists and the global art community. Our hosts walked us through the new art policies in Iceland, opportunities for connecting with Icelandic artists and collaborating on producing artworks in Iceland and abroad, and engaging new and hard-to-reach audiences because “[the public] should be a part of it.”

In our next stop, we learned about the “if you can do it, I can do it” spirit of Icelanders with the Iceland Design and Architecture organization, which aims for progress in design and architecture in Iceland focusing on sustainable development. Its role is to facilitate and promote design of all kinds as a vital aspect of the future Icelandic society, economy and culture. We were vastly inspired by their key activities, including the running of the annual DesignMarch festival, which showcases the best local design alongside international names, their Design Prize, and Design Fund, which allocates grants to diverse projects in the field of design and architecture in Iceland. Finally, our hosts introduced us to powerful design initiatives that are accelerating the green transition through design, pushing for a low environmental footprint, and enabling the circularity of materials. 

On top of all that, we also decided to explore Iceland’s incredible cultural scene, known for artists such as the singer and songwriter Bjork, large-scale installation artist Olafur Eliasson, and contemporary artist Ragnar Kjartansson. At the various venues of Reykjavík Art Museum, the leading art museum in Iceland, we were fortunate to get a glimpse of a number of outstanding exhibitions, including the Icelandic 20th Century Art exhibition, featuring artworks from its 20th century collection, as well as the third edition of Kaleidoscope: Icelandic 21st Century Art, featuring a collection of artworks from the Icelandic art scene in the last two decades, both by recognized artists of the time as well as the work of younger generation of artists. We also enjoyed several other exhibitions, including Cunning Scissors, powered by Erró, a visual artist, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements, and among the most prominent figures of the European avant-garde of the 1960s. 

In addition, we made our way to the National Gallery of Iceland, the primary national art museum of Iceland whose collection comprises a diverse range of artworks, including paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings, mainly created by Icelandic artists. There we viewed Glassrain, a 1984 installation, one of the first of Rúrí‘s many works that address the theme of time and menace.

As we crisscrossed Reykjavík, we also peeked into various spaces in the city – from Andrými, a radical social center and an open space for grassroot groups and individuals to meet and organise, to Mengi, a creative space in downtown Reykjavík curating weekly events focused on experimental art & music.

Connecting with the vibrant creative community

In our last days, we visited Bio Paradis, a gorgeous independent cinema that looks like something out of a Wes Anderson film, to connect with some of the members of Post-dreifing, an art collective, mostly made up of young artists, coming from different corners of the Reykjavík grassroots scene. The group's main goal is to build visibility and self-sufficiency for artists through collaboration. With nearly 50 artists and musicians making up the collective, they host an impressive annual festival in northern Iceland and regularly organise concerts and other activities, including supporting the refugee movement.

We also met up with the organizers of Fúsk – an ideal-driven laboratory, a creative platform, a community hub, a playground for creatives, and so many other things. In Icelandic, it translates to: ‘doing something even if you haven’t figured it all out yet,’ but probably not quite. Although they are at the moment searching for a new space, Elín Margot, Director of the Product Design program at the Iceland University of the Arts and an artist with a socially-engaged practice involving gender, food and activism, noted that they welcome projects that will feed and strengthen the community. In this role, she is also the Program Director of RUSL, a sustainable design festival focusing on circular thinking and its application within art, design and culture. At the end of our meeting, Elín took us on a tour of the university campus, alive with a diverse range of art studios and workshops.

These vibrant creative networks are all about transforming our community as well as how we work in the process. We were left inspired, thinking of new ways to engage local artists in our formats such as Labs, where we match artists and technologists to ideate solutions over the course of a weekend for our greatest social and environmental challenges. 

Catching the last days of Pride in Iceland (also called Joy Parade), we got a glimpse of a Reykjavík that is loud and proud – adorned with rainbows around every corner, including at the city’s main church, alight with the hues of love, diversity, and boundless acceptance.

We look forward to what’s to come.

We partnered with CoGenerate to imagine a cogenerational future!

We are living in the most age-diverse time in human history, and yet many of our societies are deeply age-segregated, with few opportunities for generations to connect in daily life, much less combine their talent. Imagine what could be achieved if all generations came together for change. Huge potential lies in harnessing the energy, ideas and experience of different generations to tackle everything from global poverty and homelessness to racism and climate change.

To imagine a new way forward, we teamed up with CoGenerate – one of the leading social-impact organizations in the US dedicated to making the most of our increasingly multigenerational society – to produce an open-license collection of diverse illustrations and symbols that depict generations working together to solve our greatest challenges.

Together, we commissioned 29 artists from around the world to create illustrations and symbols that reimagine what we can achieve if we bring generations together. 

We also launched an open call for illustrations on the same topic, with a focus on a hopeful vision for our collective future. We received 91 submissions by 47 artists from all around the world, and selected 5 finalists and 3 honorable mentions. 

Our goal was to create a unique collection of visuals so that anyone can use and adapt them free of charge, to show the power of cogeneration. With more than 50 artworks, the collection is a tool for nonprofits, activists and citizens globally to call for — and build — a multigenerational force for good. All the works are published under an open license on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact art. 

Browse the collection and download your favorites to use in your future campaigns!

Labs are back with a bang to change climate change!

Climate change – the greatest challenge of our time, with rising temperatures and ecosystem degradation threatening life on Earth – was at the heart of our latest Fine Acts Labs edition. `

After an unavoidable three-year pandemic break, we brought back our renowned Labs series in June, with two simultaneous events, an in-person one and an online one – both focusing on climate change and climate justice. 

Labs is our original format where teams of artists and technologists work together over a weekend to prototype ideas that raise awareness or provide solutions for a specific problem. The ideas should merge the power of art to translate pressing issues into a language that makes people care and act, and technology, a tool that fuels solutions, participation and experiences. A jury then awards one idea with a grant for further development. 

And the best part? We play! Labs is an example of our concept of playtivism – which refers to the process of incorporating play and experimentation in activism. We see multidisciplinary, creative play as essential to human rights and environmental work – as play sparks better ideas, and can be an antidote to the high levels of burnout and depression amongst activists.

The live international edition featured 7 brilliant creative duos from 6 countries. It was hosted at Resonator, a unique creative tech hub in Sofia, Bulgaria, with all sorts of laboratories at its disposal – from electronics and sound to XR and fabrication.

The seven teams were strategically paired prior to the event. As intense ideation work kicked off after a short series of practical lightning sessions on the topic, examples of socially-engaged artworks, teamwork, productive brainstorming and more, many participants found themselves genuinely clicking with their partners. Energies matched, skills and interests complemented and enhanced collaboration. “It has been enlightening to see how many people of different backgrounds can come together, and to learn that I myself can easily collaborate so freely with someone I don’t know,” said one of the participants Zhelev Atanasov. “The biggest surprise is my partner – what a great match! We’ve been able to fit together perfectly,” said Lucian E. Matei. “In the right circumstances you can accomplish good results even with people you just met,” said Boril Obreshkov. 

Over the course of the Labs, the creative teams of artists and techies worked tirelessly to bring to life ideas which addressed the climate crisis with and through hope. Ideas bounced, formed and disintegrated to be reshaped and reformed anew. The teams tapped into a diverse pool of mentors – from prominent climate activists to renowned artists and experienced techies. Clear guidance and support were provided through structured mentoring sessions, as well as access to the mentors at all times. On the second day the mentors shared that they observed immense progress after seeing where each team had landed in the final stretch before pitching in front of the jury.

The atmosphere was electric as imagination ran wild while teams prepared prototypes and presentations. At the end of the intense weekend, teams took to the stage one after the other. It quickly became clear that all participants had gone beyond the shallow waters of practical problem-solving and delved into their own inner worlds to come up with well-rounded complex creative ideas. They were solution-oriented and grounded in science but also deeply rooted in hope and refined to a high conceptual and artistic standard. 

The ideas ranged from a shared merch bank tackling the problem of the wasteful swag industry with grace and humour, to a forest memorial park, powered by the community and made out of the wooden scraps found at deforestation sites. From a video game with a time-traveling protagonist set in a dystopian future with the chance to go back in time to reverse climate change, to a gamified interactive installation raising awareness of e-waste and its harmful effects. From a thought-provoking gun-shaped public art installation made from old oil barrels urging viewers to confront climate change head-on, to an interactive hologram of Earth under water, helping us visualize the healing power of collective effort on this planet in the here and now.

The selection process was incredibly hard – but one idea stood out and captured the attention of the jury. After a rigorous deliberation process, the jury awarded Katerina Vaseva and Daniel Haas who showcased It’s Fine – a digital platform and video installation that transforms all the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parts of humanity into natural landscapes and sounds. Its goal is to create a shared space where we can contemplate what the world without humans would look like, what we stand to lose, what would remain, and who really needs saving. Input images will be sourced from people around the globe, and anyone will be able to upload an image to see it transform. The work’s main message: Nature can live without us, but we can't live without nature.

“My personal hope is that every person realizes that every small action helps. Big change doesn’t come in a day and it requires all of us to contribute. I hope to see more people do their part in solving the climate crisis.”

— Plamen Pekov (participant)

The winning duo received a grant of 5 000 USD to bring their vision to life by November, in collaboration with Fine Acts. But Katerina and Daniel are not the only ones who will receive ongoing support. All other teams looking to implement their ideas will receive mentoring and organizational support from us and our vast network. 

This latest Labs edition was a powerful reminder of the pivotal role of interdisciplinary work in solving large-scale social and environmental issues. The diverse array of perspectives of artists, activists and technologists allowed teams to develop more complex ideas for immediate solutions. And through a weekend’s worth of collaboration and introspection a deep sense of hope appeared in all of us present. That change is possible.

Stay tuned for our article on our second Labs!

Bahia Shehab: Art should be at the forefront of all important conversations

Photo: Amr El-Harery

In the aftermath of COP27, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, we spoke with Bahia Shehab, brilliant Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist, with whom we collaborated on Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene, an experiential artwork, exhibited at the climate summit. The work informs the audience on the possible futures we face as humans if we do – or don’t – change our attitudes towards the environment. 

The installation is composed of two adjacent rooms: one representing heaven and the other – hell. Participants do not know which of the two “scenarios of eternity” they will be engaging with, as from the outside the rooms look entirely identical. Before entering, each visitor is given a page from a gamebook (printed fiction that invites the reader to participate in the story by making choices). Based on their choices, and respective sustainability score, visitors are guided to enter either Room 1 or Room 2 – where all their senses are targeted by very different sights, sounds, temperatures, and smells.

See what Bahia has to say about the best moments at COP27, creating immersive experiences and using art to spark conversations and fuel social change.

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What inspired you to create Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene? What is the ‘legacy’ you hope it leaves? 

When I was approached by Fine Acts, Yana [Fine Acts’ executive director] gave me an insight for inspiration – how body temperature can affect our decision making process: namely, that people sitting in warmer rooms are more likely to say that ‘global warming’ is a problem. I wanted to present this in a more visceral and conceptual way at the same time. Heaven and Hell are two concepts that are familiar to everybody, and they're also linked to concepts of eternity. So to me, it was crucial to translate a scientific insight into a conceptual one that is accessible to the masses.

 For the legacy that I hope it will leave, I think what's important at this point is that we start opening up the conversation, to include everybody. Because these conversations have been happening behind closed doors for a long time. They have been largely between governments, stakeholders in the private sector and the scientific community.

Most of the time everybody else is left out of these conversations. So what the artwork hopes to accomplish is to create a tunnel, create a space, where these two worlds can come together and have a difficult conversation. The legacy of the artwork, I hope, is to be an icebreaker. 

What was the thinking behind creating an immersive experience? 

I was interested in creating an immersive experience because I wanted people to feel and not think. Thus, in collaboration with the curator Yana, we made the decision to have close to zero visual or textual communication inside the space. 

Photos: Fine Acts & Amr El-Harery

We were met by a lot of questions at the door. People would read the exhibition name from a distance and they would walk up to us and ask, what is this? I think it was important to spark people’s curiosity first, but then to make the body think, not the mind, which is a really challenging exercise because the mind always wants a rational narrative.

And what we wanted to provide is a visceral one, a really urgent one. So when you feel it instinctively in your body, you understand that it's dire – that we are all going to literally burn if we don't do something collectively about it.

Were your expectations met by the visitors’ reactions?

It actually went beyond our wildest expectations. I had no idea how people would react. I was worried that maybe they would not understand, that maybe I was asking too much of my audience. But I think the gamification component did the trick. Everybody wanted to play.

Photos: Amr El-Harery

We had over 3000 visitors. I saw people from all around the world come and play. Some were curious, others fearful. Some people passed by to ask what it was, and when we told them, they were literally too scared to walk in. 

And to me that's a great insight – there is fear. And those who were courageous enough to walk in and play, were met with a series of decisions that they had to make, that would determine their destiny on the spot. This was really beautiful to see unraveling. People from different walks of life, from different parts of the world, from different social backgrounds, from different academic backgrounds – they all reacted in a very similar way.

Most people wanted to see heaven and then see hell, and vice versa. Most wanted to understand how their decisions affected the bigger picture. The fact that the artwork gave people agency – this was the most amazing thing. To witness how people felt empowered that if they keep the water tap on, their score goes down, or if they reuse their towel, their score goes up – in the same way that they might be judged on whether they go to heaven or go to hell. So that was really beautiful to witness. 

So, yes, it was really heartwarming to see how the installation was received. People understood it. They played, they reacted. There was a lot of laughter. There was a lot of joy. And to me, the most important thing is that people enjoy the experience – this is what makes it memorable for them.  

So they walk away reflecting on things – not just as consumers of art, but as reflectors. They walked away reconsidering their own personal experiences, their daily decisions – and seeing how they can help tackle climate change.

What were the most surprising and most favorite reactions from participants in the installation? 

There were so many! There were two men who were dancing and singing: “Heaven, I'm in Heaven,” when they got to heaven. Then there were little children, who were jumping around Heaven saying: “Oh, we are in heaven. We made it to heaven!” To me, it was the extreme emotional reactions that were the most beautiful to witness as they revealed so much about the people playing and their personalities.

Of course, I had people who walked in and out and said: “We still don't understand.” And I felt like I needed to be sometimes more literal in my explanation. But most people got it right away, and that was wonderful. 

As an artist, activist and historian, what, according to you, is the role of art for climate action and shaping the climate movement?  

To me, the reason why we worked so hard to make it to COP27 this year is because I believe that art can be part of the bigger conversation. We don’t create art only for society’s  entertainment. We're not there just for consumption. Art is a tool for social change. I always believed in that, and in activating the artistic process to serve the community, to help us tackle serious issues, to help policy makers realize that art can be used as a tool in disseminating knowledge, in shifting public perception, and in creating more awareness. 

Photos: Fine Acts and Amr El-Harery

Other artists might dream of being at major artistic events – but to me, being at COP27 was the statement. As an artist, delivering work at such a high profile and urgent conference was really important.

Talking about the role of art, generally, globally, there is now a conversation about “where does art go”. Does art go in the museum? Or is art on the street? Where do we go with art? To me, as an artist, I feel that art should be at the forefront of all important conversations, like the ones that have to do with the climate now. Art is a facilitator. It's the soft power. We should be building on our soft power as humanity to correct the mistakes that we have done to the planet.

What value do you see in sharing your artwork under an open license for people to recreate? Is there already interest for next editions of the artwork?

I come from a street art background. So art for the people is my driving force. I believe in the accessibility of art. I believe that art should be where it's most needed – for the people who don't have the tools or the ability to enjoy it, or the luxury or the background or the facility or the tools to consume it and to use it and for it to change their lives. 

Art can indeed change lives and it should be present in places where it can play that role of creating social change. So for me, creating an artwork under an open license is an amazing opportunity to share the vision, the thinking process and the tools to create social change. 

This is why I'm really excited. We've had so many teachers walk through the installation and ask for a more affordable, DIY edition of the artwork – and now we are working with Fine Acts on developing a more mobile, cheaper version of this concept. It's a game. It's amazing for children. 

On the last day, we were visited by children from an orphanage. Their teachers brought them to see the artwork. They were five to eight years old. They were very young children, but their teachers made an effort to bring them all because they saw the value in their students experiencing such an artwork. So I would like for this artwork to be accessible to teachers, as well as to climate groups, and to anybody who needs it as an educational tool to help their community.

The next edition of the artwork is actually going to be in March, 2023 on the American University in Cairo campus. It will be open to our university community. It will be also used as a testing ground, as a seed for other universities and other schools to experience it. It will be similar to what was created at COP27, but we are hoping to create a faster, cheaper DIY Heaven and Hell that anybody can use to create change in their community.

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About Bahia Shehab

Bahia Shehab is an artist and author based in Cairo. She is Professor of design and founder of the graphic design program at The American University in Cairo. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and streets around the world. Through investigating Islamic art history she reinterprets contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues.

She has received a number of international recognitions and awards, which include the BBC 100 Women list, a TED Senior Fellowship, and a Prince Claus Award. She is the first Arab woman to receive the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture and is shortlisted for the Tällberg Foundation’s 2020 Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. Shehab holds a PhD from Leiden University in The Netherlands and is the founding director of Type Lab@AUC.

Her publications include You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution, At The Corner of a Dream, A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif and the co-authored book A History of Arab Graphic Design.

How to select effective visuals for your next campaign

Illustration: Aysha Tengiz for Fine Acts x OBI 

Insights from behavioral, cognitive and neuroscience studies tell us that opinions change NOT through more information and dry facts – but by empathetic and compelling experiences, visual communications and effective storytelling. That’s where visuals come in: our brains are hardwired for visual content. Coupling our campaigns with powerful imagery can help us get attention, facilitate retaining information, and provoke an emotional response and action.

But how to know which are the right visuals for your next human rights or environmental campaign? Below are some tips based on our multi-year work with hundreds of artists and nonprofits. We’ve written these mainly with illustrations in mind, but they very much apply to other forms of visual art, such as photos, videos, etc., that accompany our campaigns and communications.

• Consider your context. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. As a rule, art has the potential to communicate important messages in a creative, impactful and engaging way; and powerful visual content on social issues raises visibility and engagement, and fosters understanding and empathy. However, depending on your context, a visual could be truly effective or have no impact at all. More than anything here, consider your audience and what content would resonate with it. 

• Don’t forget about representation: Do the people in your creative reflect the diversity of your audience? Are you reinforcing gender or racial stereotypes with your visuals? What we’ve seen again and again is that reflecting your target audience in your visuals is key to getting your message across. It’s much easier for someone to imagine themselves engaging with your campaign if they see someone that looks like them represented in your campaign creatives. Various A/B tests we’ve performed with illustration sets across geographies showed us that in each country different visuals triggered engagement, depending on the familiarity of the characters in the creative and which ones they could associate more with. Reflecting your community in the visuals you use can mean thinking about gender, religion, race, disability, sexual orientation etc.  Overall, it is not advisable to use generic illustrations or stock photos.

• Diversify your visual imagery: Different types of imagery and visual symbols emotionally appeal to your different audiences. Our tests have shown that in some countries, the classic protest pose imagery received more engagement, while in other countries, other less used types of imagery and symbols were more appreciated. Always test the visual imagery that you use to see what gets more engagement.

• Inspire hope and awe: When choosing your visuals, whenever possible make sure that the artwork does not rely on a dry, edifying, dark or aggressive tone, but on the contrary – it connects on a human level by provoking empathy, it empowers and inspires hope. Don’t use visuals that simply reflect the direness of a situation, or ‘what it is’ – be more interested in what ‘it could be’. Aim at inspiration, excitement, bringing hope, activation, aspiration.

• Craft effective slogans: When crafting your slogans, don't just tell people what you oppose, also tell them what you stand for. Use hope-based communications in your messages and slogans to share your vision. People want to join something bigger themselves and be part of the change. Also, make sure to align the copy you are using with your visual/illustration. The copy should not repeat, but should complement the illustration. Avoid using slogans that are too obvious, or include possible trigger words that could lead to getting your post banned on social media.

Consider these tips next time when you’re commissioning an artist, or when you are selecting an illustration from our unique platform for free social impact visuals TheGreats.co – published under an open license and allowing non-commercial use and adaptation. 

Want to know more about effective visuals? Dive straight into Seeing Hope – our visual messaging guide for human rights developed in collaboration with Thomas Coombes of hope-based comms. It offers the human rights movement a new visual vocabulary, one that shows what it looks like to enjoy and spread human rights, and promotes the core ideas – kindness, empathy and shared humanity – that underpin support for human rights policies.

Free illustration toolkit for your 16 Days of Activism campaign against gender-based violence

Illustration: Anina Takeff for Fine Acts

With the global campaign against gender-based violence (GBV) – 16 Days of Activism – currently underway, we’re equipping hundreds of activists around the world with free powerful illustrations in the countdown to end violence against girls and women. Every year the campaign commences on 25 November – the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – and runs up to 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Our illustration pack of open-license art is meant to serve as an invaluable resource and tool for activists, grassroots organizations and nonprofits from around the world, working towards gender equality. 
It is a broad collection featuring a range of different topics from GBV to sexual health, that we created working with hundreds of artists around the world.

Illustration: Anina Takeff for Fine Acts

Illustration: Jasmina Zornic for Fine Acts

Illustration: Rozalina Burkova for Fine Acts

All works are published under an open license on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact visuals. This means that all of the illustrations in the Women’s Rights Collection are available to feminist groups, campaigners and educators to use and adapt non-commercially, in order to advocate for a better place for women, girls and trans people. 

The extra awesome thing is that you can change or translate the copy, add new text (or delete it), use different colors – anything really to make it effective in your own context.

Imagery connected to GBV often focuses on portraying the victims of GBV and sexual harassment. There is a grave overrepresentation of this type of imagery – illustrations heavily focus on depicting the violence itself and the result of it (bruises, cuts etc.), and not so much on what women can do, what allies can do, what healthy relationships look like, etc. 

A world without violence is possible and demands unparalleled courage and joint action to make this vision a reality. To gallop faster towards a brighter future, we also need to show how it actually looks like. 

To align with our common vision, our collection focuses on visuals that depict empowerment, including those that showcase healthy relationships in a GBV-free society. 

The collection can be used all year round – for your protest posters at a local rally, flyers you hand out on the street, in your social media posts online or the myriad other ways you mobilize your community. Let’s continue our efforts from 16 to 365 days of activism to advance women’s rights.

We gave sexual health a visual revamp

Illustration: Olga Mrozek for IPPF x Fine Acts

Illustration: Jal Reed for IPPF x Fine Acts

Illustration: Alejandro Ortiz for IPPF x Fine Acts

In 2022, we joined forces with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a global healthcare provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all, to embark on a visual reframing journey to challenge and disrupt how SRHR are communicated around the globe.

In the past years, women’s sexual and reproductive rights have come under threat more and more. We are seeing a major backlash against the very concept of gender equality. In the meantime, huge needs remain – from lack of access to modern contraceptives and abortion care, to lack of adequate relationships&sex education. 

To turn the tide in our favor, it is not enough that we have the facts and reason on our side. It has become imperative that we get better at sharing our messages, foregrounding the values that underpin our work and using language – including visual language – that is more understandable, more inclusive and more effective.

According to behavioral, cognitive and neuroscience insights, opinions change NOT through more information and dry facts – but by empathetic and compelling experiences, visual communications and effective storytelling. That’s where visuals come in: our brains are hardwired for visual content – powerful imagery can help us get attention, facilitate retaining information, and provoke an emotional response and action.

To this end, we first curated two interactive visual communications trainings for 50+ organizations, part of the IPPF network, from all around the world, to equip them with the science of what makes people care and creative campaigning knowhow. The goal; to inspire them to think strategically about their visual communications and campaigning, and to use the power of art for social change.

Illustration: Jordan Schiffer for IPPF x Fine Acts

Illustration: Olga Mrozek for IPPF x Fine Acts

Illustration: Bruna Alves for IPPF x Fine Acts

To support the collective future we are striving for, we also created a new collection of hopeful visual artworks to serve as a tool for educators, activists, organizers and health providers fighting for SRHR around the world, helping everyone access the care they need to live a dignified life, based on respect. For it, we worked with 30 talented artists from around the world, who produced 90+ illustrations on SRHR topics – from abortion care, contraceptive care & sex ed to gender-based violence, gender equality & LGBTQI+ rights! 

All works are published under a specific open license on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact visuals, so that IPPF’s network and other activists and nonprofits globally can use them in their future campaign work. All illustrations can be used and adapted non-commercially to advocate for a better place for women, girls and trans people. The extra awesome thing is that you can change or translate the copy, add new text (or delete it), use different colors – anything really to make it effective in your own context.

We then did extensive social media A/B testing in three countries to understand what kind of visuals work in different contexts, and produced a report analyzing the results – providing insights, recommendations and tips. Finally, we carried out a series of webinars and interactive workshops where we showed how nonprofits can use the collection, talked about how to work with artists, explored why, how and when to use A/B testing, and consulted them on concrete visual communications materials for campaigns and advocacy efforts.

What to find out more about our trainings? Get in touch with us at hello@fineacts.co and we’ll give you the rundown.

Our art installation on climate change at COP27 makes global leaders sweat

How can we make world leaders truly care about climate change? To answer this question, we at Fine Acts teamed up with prominent Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist Bahia Shehab to create Heaven and Hell in the Anthropocene – an experiential artwork that just launched at COP27 – the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference happening in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The artwork is informed by a famous study which concluded that people’s beliefs about climate change are closely tied to the temperature they’ve recently experienced – in other words, people sitting in warmer rooms are more likely to say that ‘global warming’ is a problem.

We turned this insight into an impactful artistic experience to raise questions around responsibility, participation and action. Since we couldn’t crank up the heat in COP27’s plenary rooms, we created an immersive public art installation at COP27 and invited decision-makers to experience two competing scenarios for the future. 

The installation is composed of two adjacent rooms: one representing heaven and the other – hell. Participants do not know which of the two 'scenarios of eternity' they will be engaging with, since the rooms look entirely identical from the outside.

Before entering, visitors play a game, and, based on their sustainability choices, they are guided to enter either Heaven or Hell. There, all their senses are targeted by very different sights, sounds, temperatures, and smells.

Hell is a small, dark, angled, claustrophobic space. It smells of sh*t, decomposing fruit and hospital rooms. It sounds like construction, drilling, and disaster. It is set to 38°C degrees – the Arctic’s highest recorded temperature to date, as well as the body temperature over which a person is generally considered ill/unwell. 

“Many governments, companies and individuals are still insensitive to scientific facts and numbers – today there are entities who do not believe in the impact we have inflicted, and are still inflicting, on the environment. Thus, a more physical and visceral experience is needed.”

— Yana Buhrer Tavanier, co-founder and executive director of Fine Acts

Heaven on the other hand is a light, bright, gentle, domed interior. It is set at a comfortable temperature of 21°C degrees. You are surrounded by nature sounds – birds, water, wind through leaves – and scents of freshness and orange blossoms.

“For many the perception of eternity is divided between the two poles of heaven in hell. Living in the Anthropocene – this unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth's history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet's climate and ecosystems – we need to ask ourselves, what’s our eternity really going to look like? Are we going to heaven, or are we going to hell? Our multi-sensory experience highlights a future with each individual’s decisions in mind,” says artist Bahia Shehab.

The aim of the installation is to make people feel like stakeholders in our collective future and drive action towards making change possible. According to the artist, “We are at the point of Earth’s story where we as the main protagonist need to make a crucial decision. By our collective effort we can turn this planet into heaven or hell.” 

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The artwork is displayed on site in the Green Zone at COP27 (November 6-18). It will then be made replicable under an open license – with its key characteristics and aesthetics published online in a DIY manual, so that movements and collectives around the world can recreate it in their cities. Stay tuned for the manual!

Our Pyramids of Garbage return to Egypt ahead of COP27

Photo courtesy of Zero Co.

It’s a castle, it's a dump, no, wait – it's a 20-ton plastic waste pyramid in Egypt’s Western Desert, just outside of Cairo. Pyramids of Garbage, our installation that we created in 2020 together with artist Bahia Shehab and Countdown – TED’s global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, is back – bigger and bolder!

The installation returns to Egypt just ahead of COP27, this time thanks to Zero Co, a zero-waste company. Erected in the Western Desert, just outside of Cairo, the immense structure is made using the equivalent of 1 million plastic water bottles, collected from the Nile River. It weighs a whopping 20 tons and is taller than a three-story building.

By placing (AGAIN!) an actual pyramid of garbage in Cairo – the home of the only surviving wonder of the world, the great pyramids of Giza – our artwork raises questions about overproduction and overconsumption. “Now is the time for us to rethink our legacy on this planet. Are we going to come together to build a sustainable future for all of us or will our new legacy be pyramids of garbage?” asks the artist Bahia Shehab.

The 2022 stunt kicks off the 100YR CLEANUP initiative, which seeks to fund large-scale clean-ups over the next 100 years and drive accountability for the single-use plastic problem. Consumers and businesses both can join the initiative to sponsor the removal of "bundles of trash" and contribute to future cleanups around the world.

Photo courtesy of Zero Co.

The message is clear – it's time to draw a line in the sand and change how we manage the crisis. Those who have the ability, have the responsibility. 100YR CLEANUP founder, Mike Smith, says: "We can't fix the plastic problem alone, but we can give everyone the ability to take action… We want to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience untouched wilderness in all its powerful forces. Whilst we inherit this planet from our ancestors, we also borrow it from our children."

All photos courtesy of Zero Co.

Our new illustration collection on bridging and belonging

“Let’s create a world, where at every level, everyone belongs.”

— john a. powell, Director of UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute

Illustrations left to right: Mark Wang, Elise Vandeplancke, and Teo Georgiev for Fine Acts

What does belonging look like in practice? How can we visualize the act of bridging diverse communities? What would our world look like if we overcame the cleavages that often divide society (such as race, class, or religion)?

These are all questions that we asked ourselves in our collaboration with our amazing partners from the Democracy & Belonging Forum, an initiative by the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. The forum is a network of leaders committed to bridging across differences and advancing belonging for marginalized groups.

Together, we created a new set of visuals – that anyone can use and adapt, free of charge – to accompany stories and narratives that focus on bridging and belonging and show that this is a possible future, in response to the current challenges we are facing as humanity.

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Why? Because by creating awesome visual content on important social issues we can actually show what it means to cross the lines of difference to build a larger “us” – while raising visibility and engagement, and fostering understanding and empathy.

The Bridging and Belonging open-license collection of powerful illustrations features over 70 artworks. For it, we commissioned 40 artists from around the world to create works on our future vision, solutions and hope. We also organized a global open call for existing works on the topic – where we received over 220 submissions, out of which 30 artists were distinguished by our jury.

All works can be found on TheGreats.co – our unique global platform for free social impact visuals. By publishing all artworks under an open license, we also offer a solution to a key problem for many NGOs, grassroots groups, and activists, as they often lack the capacity and resources to create compelling visual materials that make their essential work or campaigns visible.

The collection is a tool for nonprofits, activists and citizens anywhere to call for a future where we all belong.

Meet the Defenders of Ukraine

How far would you go to defend your loved ones? To protect your city, your country, your people? We might think we know the answers to these questions but only when we are faced with great adversity can we know our true strength. 

When the war in Ukraine started, hundreds of thousands of civilians left their previous lives behind, and volunteered to protect their homeland. Who are these people? Is such bravery superhuman, or the most intrinsic human trait there is? 

On day 2 of the war, we reached out to Ukraine’s Julia Kochetova, a phenomenal young photographer, and commissioned her to make a portrait series of defenders. In the months that followed, Julia focused on the people who stayed to fight, often becoming someone entirely new overnight. For DEFENDERS she used old soviet prism lenses to visualise how Russia shattered the lives of Ukrainians – but couldn’t break the country’s spirit.

“Every journalist wants a nice picture, but the reality is not like that,” says 21-year-old Nastya, one of the featured defenders, while treating an amputation wound. She was planning to become a nurse before the war – but instead, she became a full-time animal rescue volunteer. At her temporary house, you’ll find almost 30 dogs – all of them rescued from the Kyiv region.

“This constant cycle of goodness, this purity – without an expectation of a "thank you", it is a wonderful feeling,” shares Danylo Golota, who was a CEO before the start of the war, and now a volunteer. Despite the missiles and bombs he decided to stay in Kiev together with his wife Mary, an ex-running coach, who explains: “We immediately realized that we were not going anywhere. We immediately got involved in volunteering – it was inevitable.”

“Our huge goal justifies this fear. I love Ukraine and Ukrainians. I'm not afraid to die,” says Tanya Romaniuk, who used to be a university mentor, and is now a Red Cross volunteer.

These are just glimpses into the endless stories of bravery and honor. Words and images of resilience and courage. In the face of sheer horror and darkness, these defenders have decided to choose hope, light and humanity. 

DEFENDERS is part of our Being Ukraine series, where we at Fine Acts have been working with amazing Ukrainian artists on creative collaborations focusing on the immense power and resilience of Ukrainian people.

Fine Acts releases Vagina Matters in the UK

For this year’s Sexual Health Week, we’re announcing the release of Vagina Matters, our illustrated sex education book, in the UK. The book was created and produced by us at Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact, and published in the UK in collaboration with our partners Daye, the gynae health innovator, and the UK's leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people, Brook.

In over 250 pages, Vagina Matters covers everything from periods, vaginal health and STIs, to body positivity, sex, LGBTQ+ issues, as well as self-exploration and masturbation. It is a guide for young people to understand their bodies, and take charge of their sexual health.

Vagina Matters specifically focuses on the experiences of girls, as well as trans and non-binary people, aged 12 to 14, but can be read by anyone. Consulted by countless sexual health experts, it provides a great starting point to the core topics covered in comprehensive sex education.

The book is available to read online for free on the Vagina Matters website, or in print for an affordable sum via Daye, our publisher and distributor in the UK.

Vagina Matters is an open book, created with the idea to make it available for publishing in different languages and contexts. The initiative kicked off in 2019, with the launch of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that helped fund the first edition released in Bulgaria. Now, with the launch of the English edition, the initiative is going global with its first such collaboration. 

“We’re set on encouraging a culture of curiosity and openness around sexual health issues that are so crucial to growing up and understanding ourselves. For this reason, the book is published under an open license, enabling anyone anywhere to translate it into their language,” says Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director at Fine Acts and co-author of the book. 

Vagina Matters aims to close the sex education gap by empowering educators and nonprofits around the world with engaging resources to promote sexual health awareness. To find out how to bring the Vagina Matters movement to your country, find out here or write to us at vm@fineacts.co.

Vagina Matters is created and produced by Fine Acts. It is authored by Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director at Fine Acts and activist Raya Raeva, and illustrated by two sister artists Borislava Karadzova (Borislava Madeit) and Mihaela Karadzova (Stalker 1993).

Being Julia Kochetova

The word photography literally means “drawing with light”, and this is what Julia Kochetova, an amazing young Ukrainian photographer and filmmaker, has done her whole life. Searching for the light we all carry inside as human beings.

Since March 2022, in collaboration with Fine Acts, Julia has traveled across war torn Ukraine to capture the portraits of her contemporaries who chose to stay in the country and fight – as soldiers, volunteers, or first responders. As DEFENDERS.

“The greatest gift is to have something to defend. What to fight for. What to stand for. War is crushing cities and blowing up bridges. War is killing people. But it can’t stop them. My people can’t be stopped by war,” says Julia.

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Along with her regular equipment, Julia decided to use old soviet prism lenses, which distort the subject, to visualise how Russia shattered the lives of Ukrainians – while also making a powerful point: instead of being broken, the country’s spirit has been multiplied.

“In March I went out with my camera to a recent place of hit – Kyiv was shelled every day, endless destruction, pain, but no fear. All the ground, floors, beds, were covered with glass fragments. Glass is the weakest material that shatters immediately when hit by an explosion wave. “War is glass fragments in your bed”, I thought, and understood that my vision was fragmented as well. War shakes your reality, changing it completely, sometimes crushing it, sometimes enriching it with new perspectives. 

I’m using old soviet prism lenses to visualize how our reality has been fragmented, refracted, and damaged. But even if your home window is broken because of shelling, a light shines through the prism. It is always present, and it's so important to peer into life, to notice it.”

In her work, Julia often chooses to focus on topics such as home, post-trauma, and occupation. Her main interest is filming the person in transition. As a photographer, she has covered the Maidan revolution (2013-2014), the annexation of Crimea (2014), and the Russia-Ukraine war (2014-now).

“It shapes my entire professional path – I’m part of the generation of revolution & war.”

— Julia

Her work from the conflict zone has been presented at individual and group exhibitions in the UK, the USA, France, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Serbia, and Ukraine.

“This project is a statement of why my country’s gonna win,” says Julia, and adds: “The most valuable fight is the fight for your people, and your story, to exist.”

DEFENDERS is part of our Being Ukraine series, where we at Fine Acts have been working with amazing Ukrainian artists on creative collaborations focusing on the immense power and resilience of Ukrainian people.

Our 2021 annual report is out - and, folks, isn't it amazing!

Need some inspiration? In these bleak and tumultuous times, see how we’re using art, play and hope to address some of the most pressing issues of our decade.

Feast your eyes on a visual buffet of creative campaigns led by us at Fine Acts – from our urban art actions and installations to our social impact illustrations and creative bootcamps. Take a peek, or better yet, sit back and scroll through our review of the passing year. It features some of our best work yet.

160 artists commissioned from 46 countries, 215 artworks produced, 34 exhibitions and art actions in 20 countries. We’ve had the pleasure and great responsibility to work on creative campaigns addressing issues from climate change and gender equality to racial justice and mental health.

What’s more, our report is no ordinary annual review. It’s also a unique poster collection, which you can download and hang at home or at the office, or gift to friends who can use some hope and joy.

Our work would not be possible without the immense support of our core donors at Open Society Foundations and Sigrid Rausing Trust. And we would not have been able to compile this beauty without our friends at Studio Punkt (design magic) and Oblik (digital wizardry). Plus a BIG, BIG thank you to the dozens of partners and supporters, and hundreds of incredible artists and activists we worked with in 2021.

Here’s to making an even bigger splash in 2022.

Two Ukrainian artists, two cities, two murals

Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, we reached out to our friends at Kyiv-based artist duo WE BAD with an invitation to collaborate on a mural project in Ukraine on strength and hope. But they had a better idea. Separated by the war, the artists – Lera Sxemka and Maxim Pavlyuk – wanted to keep working together, and suggested creating two murals – one close to Kyiv, Ukraine, and the other in Kosice, Slovakia. 

“To escape the missiles and bombs, we left Kyiv. And after two weeks, we made a very painful decision: Lera would go to a safe place abroad, to continue working, and Maxim would come back to Kyiv, to be helpful there. We broke apart, the same as thousands of families around the country. […] We’ve always done everything together – and although we are divided by a thousand kilometers, it was crucial to us to continue creating together”, say the artists.

So for our collaboration with WE BAD, Maxim created a mural on the walls of a bombed kindergarten in the Ozero village, Kyiv region, while Lera worked on one on a local government building in Kosice, Slovakia – to give hope to the millions of Ukrainians who find themselves outside their home, and to those on the front. Preview the two works here. 

 We interviewed Lera and Maxim about the murals they created, their work process, and what the role of art & the artist community has been since the start of the war in Ukraine. 

The mural project is part of a series of creative collaborations with a bunch of Ukrainian artists we love: beingukraine.org.

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What is the role of art in war?

Lera: In our world today, war is not only fought on the battlefield, but also in the media. So, art has become an important instrument of resistance and communication. Art is a universal language that is now our weapon in the struggle for freedom and independence.

Maxim: I think the role is not big, unfortunately. It’s all about drawing the world's attention to the situation.

Why was it important for you to create together, even when apart?

L: Parting was painful and hard. I felt like a torn leaf. And I also feel that thousands of people are going through the same thing right now. WE BAD is our kid – it’s the result of many years of learning and work. And we are not ready to give it up.

M: Because we enjoy it.

Tell us a little bit about each work and how they work together? 

L: We wanted to create something simple and easy-to-understand by different people. Something that can work separately and together. This message reminds people that they are not going through this hell alone, that good always triumphs over evil, and that we’ll meet everyone we love soon. 

M: I think everyone will understand what it’s about. The question is if they realize?

What was the process of finding the locations like? Why did you pick those buildings for the murals?

L: For me it was important to create it in a nice, calm central area in the city, where people just live their normal happy lives. Because that was the most shocking moment after crossing the border of Ukraine. I couldn’t understand how life could be so different just across the border.

A couple of years ago we took part in an artist residency programme, organized by Street Art Communication, a local organization that works with street art in Kosice, Slovakia. We became good friends and these guys helped us with finding the wall for the second mural and getting permission. The building is in the historical part of the city and hosts local authorities. From the first days of war, this building was the spot where support services were offered to Ukrainian refugees, including food and clothing.

M: I must say that I’ve been to this place many times before, and I was shocked to see this beautiful city and its streets, buildings, cars, cafes and other places destroyed. I was horrified at how this can happen in the 21st century. And at the same time on Instagram, I see how life is continuing as usual – people hanging out in Berlin, for example.

I picked a kindergarten. Childhood is the most free, defenseless and happy age, and now it’s taken by sick adults. In this case, the kindergarten is a message to adults – how crippled and inhuman they can be.

What is your message as artists? What do these works mean to you?

L: Good always triumphs over evil. We are a brave nation and we are going to fight for what we love.

M: I want people to pay attention to this war in a European country and think about the lives of millions of Ukrainians, and at this point also about their own lives. I want people to reconsider their values.

How is the artist community in Ukraine and beyond resisting the war, and supporting people within the country?

L: Since the war started, people in Ukraine have united as a family. After the initial shock passed, the artist community activated in an amazing way. Designers, illustrators and artists started to create NFT, sell artworks, and document the history of the war to raise money for our defenders.

M: Everyone rallied and works to help Ukraine.  

How has the war affected you – personally, creatively?

L: I feel empty and tired. Values have changed. Many things that used to be important are not anymore.

M: It changed my views on many things.

What do you hope for? 

L: All my hopes and beliefs are about our speedy victory. Each day I wake up and before checking the news, I hope that I don’t see information about new civilian and children’s deaths. My hopes are about expelling the Russian army from my lovely native Kherson, so I can finally see my family and not worry about them like crazy. 

M: I don’t have any hopes, I just strongly believe in our victory. 

What is “normal” and what is “different”? A TED-Ed video by Fine Acts’ Yana Buhrer Tavanier

The word “normal” is often used as a synonym for “typical”, “expected”, or even “correct”. By that logic, most people should fit the description of normal. But time and time again, so-called normal descriptions of our bodies, minds, and perceptions have turned out to match almost no one. So what does normal actually mean— and should we be relying on it so much? Fine Acts’ executive director Yana Buhrer Tavanier investigates.

Directed by Eoin Duffy
Narrated by Pen-Pen Chen
Music by Adam Alexander, Bamm Bamm Wolfgang

10 illustrations you can use for free for Black History Month

It’s Black History Month and time to celebrate Black people’s contributions and achievements (which should be every day). To honor the month, we’ve curated an awesome collection of illustrations from TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact art. 

8 of these works were created by talented Black and POC artists. We also added a couple by allies that you can also put into action. Amidst the heightened divisions in our society, these artists weave important messages of togetherness, solidarity, and change into their designs. 

This collection of artworks (and tons more on TheGreats.co) can be used and adapted for free by activists, nonprofits, and educators. Love these and need more? Check our collaboration with 12 Black artists on 24 protest posters.

Selection of illustrations: 

Hust Wilson (Download)

Jean Carlos García (Download)

Aleea Rae Campbell (Download)

Phathu Nembilwi (Download)

Ipsita Divedi (Download)

David Jon Walker (Download)

Kevin Adams (Download)

Sakina Saïdi (Download)

Linoca Souza (Download)

NSN997 (Download)

10 human rights campaigns that bring us joy and give us hope

Illustration: Atanas Giew for Fine Acts

It’s International Human Rights Day, and we decided to celebrate it with a cocktail of some of the best social campaigns that have brought us joy and hope through the years (as we suspect you might be in need of an extra dose in your life right now). Despite having different release periods, formats and approaches, these campaigns all manage to deliver a creative interpretation of the issue that makes us feel like it will all work out in the end. Gifts should be a thing on Human Rights Day, so here’s one from our team, to you.

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Fuck The Poor

A brilliant campaign for the Pilion Trust that shows the importance of crafting the right message. By portraying the difference between saying “fuck the poor” and “help the poor” it proves that people really do care, but also that we are quite desensitized to certain topics. We tend to respond to messages that challenge our beliefs but remain uninvolved as long as the issue is easy to ignore.

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Ice Watch 

The melting of the polar ice caps might feel like such a distant issue and data is just not compelling enough to convey the seriousness of the situation. Artist Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing made the issue hit “close to home” – by bringing 12 blocks of ice from near Greenland, and arranging them in a clock-like formation in front of Place du Panthéon in Paris, where our climate’s future was being decided during COP21. While the blocks were melting, people could interact with them and really gain a sense of time running out, and what’s being lost.

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Marriage Equality: Bring Your Family With You

This campaign around the 2015 marriage equality referendum in Ireland delivers a superbly wonderful presentation of the LGBTQ child–parent relationship, and how important it is. A great example of hopefulness and support.

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UNSTOPPABLE

The most awesome aspect and strongest point of this campaign video by Planned Parenthood is that it fully consists of real-life footage. There’s something truly special about seeing real people unite for a common cause, fighting for a better world.

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The Thrill of Victory

One of those videos where the music and visuals align just right to deliver a message beyond words. It’s energetic, passionate and inspiring. Well done, Amnesty!

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Flash Drives For Freedom

Can you imagine what it’s like to live in a country where information needs to be smuggled in on flash drives from abroad? To know almost nothing of the outside world and its progress?  Well, welcome to North Korea. Flash Drives For Freedom by the Human Rights Foundation is a truly brilliant and insightful initiative that fights against the lack of information in the country by having people donate flash drives, which are then loaded with various media and smuggled in. Pure genius.

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When You Don’t Exist

Refugee issues can feel distant when you're on the safer side of the border. This campaign by Amnesty International shows what it would be like if the tables were turned.

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The Story of @bee_nfluencer

Fondation de France created a fictitious Instagram influencer called B, a bee that endorses products and does all the things an influencer does. The mechanic was simple – all ad revenue goes to fund saving the bees. Featuring an unexpected twist at the end.

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Go Back To Africa

There’s beauty in taking a phrase that has a negative connotation, and flipping it. This is exactly what happens in this campaign with the phrase “Go Back to Africa.” There’s insight, there’s tech, there’s a message, it’s all there.

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Eco-bot.net

A campaign that uses AI to shed light on the issue of climate change disinformation and greenwashing on social  media. Truly, an activist campaign for the modern age. Launched just over a month ago, shortly before COP26, we think that we’ve yet to hear much about Eco-bot.net. 

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Enjoyed these? Want some more inspo? Check out our own campaigns on a vast range of human rights issues. Or, if we’ve put you in a creative mood, head over to TheGreats.co, our platform for free socially-engaged visuals, download an illustration and make it your own by changing or translating the copy, and give the gift of hope to your own community. Happy Human Rights Day!