ART WORKS Projects | 15 Years Advocating for Human Rights | ART WORKS Projects

16 years

advocating for

human rights

Image: A CITY IN LIMBO by Brittany Greeson

You’re invited to:

Terroir Territory

December 12, 2024, 6:00–9:00pm

625 N Kingsbury Street, Chicago, IL

Join AWP for our year-end fundraiser featuring a special evening of wine tasting and an exhibition highlighting 10 years of the Emerging Lens Fellowship. This event will feature the work of 2023-24 Fellows Astrig Agopian and Natalia Favre, whose projects reflect the deep connection between land, identity, and cultural resilience. Just as wine is shaped by the terroir that nourishes it, Astrig’s Like There’s No Tomorrow and Natalia’s Maloneras: Seeds of Resistance explore how soil and territory preserve heritage and memory amidst adversity.

If you are unable to attend, or do not reside in Chicago, you can still participate by purchasing sets of digital raffle tickets for one of the many giveaways that will be raffled off on the evening of December 12.

Purchase a ticket here! Student and young professional pricing is available.

ON VIEW:

Borders Cruzadas:
A WELCOMING PLACE

AWP launched Borders Cruzadas: A Welcoming Place as part of fall public engagement which ran through December 6. Large scale photography installations were placed in three Chicago Parks: Marquette Park, Humboldt Park, and Tom (Ping) Park leveraging the universal power of photography and storytelling to foster a more inclusive discourse on immigration. Through a series of photographs by Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands, the installations demonstrated how small acts of welcome can turn urban spaces into refuges of hope and belonging.

While the installations have come down, we invite you to explore the days you might bring the conversation into your classrooms and organizations. Educators resources and ideas of exploration can be found here.

Borders Cruzadas: A Welcoming Place on view at Marquette Park

Astrig Agopian, 2023 Emerging Lens Fellow

PROJECT LAUNCH:

"LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW"

What would you take with you if you only had hours to leave a home you can never return to?

This is the central question French-Armenian photojournalist and 2023 Emerging Lens Fellow Astrig Agopian explores through her interactive digital exhibition, “Like There’s No Tomorrow.” Featuring an immersive display of photography, videos, essays and interviews, Astrig’s visual storytelling project covers a three year period documenting the lived experiences of ethnic Armenians in and outside of Nagorno-Karabakh. Her fieldwork began immediately following the second Nagorno-Karabakh War, culminating in a blockade of the region in 2022. With very little access to the world outside, and very little international medial coverage, residents in the region faced severe humanitarian crises including starvation and displacement. The situation escalated in September 2023, when Azerbaijani forces launched a ground offensive, bringing the region under their control within 24 hours and forcing the remaining 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.

Learn more about Astrig’s project and how you can learn more about what’s at stake for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh here.

AWP Presents:

Eight Years of Emerging Lens at 2024 Photoville FESTIVAL

The Emerging Lens Fellowship is ART WORKS Projects’ signature program, highlighting and celebrating global and community-centered photojournalism by supporting new and early career documentary photographers.

AWP will be exhibiting work from the Emerging Lens Fellowship at the 13th annual Photoville Festival in New York City from June 1–16, 2024. Featured photographers include our 2022-23 fellows Astrig Agopian and Mustaga Saeed, along with early fellows Mark Anthony Brown Jr., Megan Farmer, Brittany Greeson, Emmanuel Guillén Lozano, Isadora Kosofsky, and Rachel Woolf. Opening weekend will be June 1st and 2nd in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Learn more about Photoville and AWP’s exhibition, Emerging Lens: Safety, Visibility, Justice, and a Hope for the Futur e.

Emmanuel Guillén Lozano, 2016 Emerging Lens Fellow

Jean Chung for Women between Peace and War: Afghanistan

18 Years, 35 Projects

ART WORKS Projects leverages the power of photography and documentary film to raise awareness and educate the public about some of the most pervasive and grave human rights violations.

Since ART WORKS launched 15 years ago, we’ve supported 35 projects documenting stories around the world.

our timeline

2006 | AWP opens with traveling exhibit “DARFUR/DARFUR” to 25 international cities.

2011 | “Horn of Africa” opens at George Washington University

Person standing in the center surrounded by a group, all looking towards the camera. — 2012 | AWP partners with SAPPI, Ideas That Matter, and UNWOMEN to produce exhibit "Women Between Peace and War"

2013 | In honor of World Refugee Day, images from “Sanctuary/Sustenance” are displayed in 20 international cities

Child sitting on shoulders of person cheering — 2014 | “Children of Syria” exhibit opens at 625 Gallery; Filming begins for AWP’s first full-feature documentary film, “The Prosecutors”

2015 | Photographer Amanda Rivkin documents the realities of food access through solo exhibit, “Sustenance: Chicago and the Food Chain”

2016 | MacArthur Foundation awards AWP with significant grant to complete post-production work and outreach for “The Prosecutors”

2017 | Emerging Lens recipient, Isadora Kosofky, debuts exhibit, “Vinny & David: Life and Incarceration of a Family,” at 625 Gallery

2018 | Emerging Lens recipient, Rachel Woolf, debuts exhibit, “Deported: An American Division”; The first screening of “The Prosecutors” at the PSVI Conference in London

2019 | Emerging Lens recipient, Megan Farmer, debuts, “Life After a Hate Crime,” with generous funding from the Henry Nias Foundation

2020 | AWP launches digital exhibit, “The Second Wave: Thailand’s Economic Struggle,” documenting the ongoing struggles of Covid-19 on the informal economy

2021 | AWP revisits Flint, MI in the midst of Covid-19 to develop collaborative exhibit, “ECHOES,” showcasing work created by students in the Youth News Movement

Congo/Women at the Russell Senate building

Bring an Exhibit to Your Community

All of our exhibitions are designed to tour and can be adapted to a broad spectrum of venue types and sizes.

We are happy to provide step-by-step support for hosting one of our exhibitions or other projects.

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Support Our Work

Help ART WORKS unlock $50,000 in our year-end donor challenge. Any gift, at any amount will be matched dollar-per-dollar up to $50,000.

Since we launched as a human rights arts advocacy organization in Chicago eighteen years ago, we have made strides in establishing a significant global footprint. Using art to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers, AWP has inspired audience members on five continents to support an end to grave human rights abuses. While we are proud of our impact, we know more essential works needs to be done.