CONSULT
Art4Development.Net works with arts and development organizations in collaboration with private sector stakeholders to identify opportunities that aim to make meaningful and sustainable differences for those who are disproportionately impacted by developmental challenges. We conduct research to better understand the critical and systemic problems, dig deeper into the mindsets and behaviors of influencers and beneficiaries, and co-create arts-infused initiatives that intend to address the educational, socio-cultural, economic, health, and environmental inequities.
Partner with us to help strategize and design creative and innovative solutions/programs that align with your mission as well as sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Find out more about our projects and programs we’ve led throughout the years.
CREATIVE CHANGE PROJECT
Empowering youth to take action on SDGs
Art4Development. Net co-organized an online Youth Arts Contest with TakinglTGlobal Gallery (“TIG”) in partnership with the United Nations’ Millennium Campaign. The submissions to the contest, Vision 2015: Your Future, was then launched as a traveling exhibit at the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN) conference in New York City, USA. The one-day GYAN conference focused on how young people are working to achieve both the MDGs (now SDGs) and the World Program of Action for Youth.
Since 2005, Art4Development.Net curated numerous CreativeChange Traveling Arts Exhibitions supported with workshops and edutaining activities. The Georgetown University Intercultural Center Galleria, DC Martin Luther King Public Library, World Bank Youth-2-Youth Community, and Warehouse Gallery were among those that hosted the exhibit in Washington DC. Other edutaining events have occurred in countries like Canada, Macedonia, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Dubai.
TREASURE POSTCARDS PROJECT
Creating opportunities for artists to help build awareness and funds
TreasurePostcards by Art4Development.Net is an international project that brings emerging and professional artists from across the globe together to visually express social and economic issues with postcard-sized artworks. It is an educational/ informative medium that not only helps artists gain visibility through their individual works and shares their creative ambitions, but also creates awareness on social and economic issues, provokes thoughts, inspires, and helps raise micro-funds for efforts making a positive difference in communities.
To date, the TreasurePostcards project has highlighted issues related to poverty reduction, cultural heritage, and gender. As part of the International Women’s Day celebration and to give voice to girls and women’s issues, the latest series presented 88 female artists from around the world who donated their artworks for the TreasurePostcards Project and helped generate funds for shelters in the US and Turkey, and organizations working in Sierra Leone and Uganda. Check out a sample catalog (PDF) from the previous series.
The project was exhibited in various locations, including but not limited to Sewall-Belmont House and Museum and Touchstone Gallery in Washington DC.
RURBAN’ARTSTRUCTIONS PROJECT
Activating communities to make eco-health a priority
Rurban’Artstructions is an international awareness initiative that brings eco artists of all levels and disciplines together with development advocates focusing on the importance of sustainability, agricultural development, and food security. The effort has honed in on the intersection of rural agriculture and urban farming with artistic creativity, innovation and sustainable development.
As part of this initiative, we worked with various stakeholders from hosting panel discussions with subject matter experts to hands-on arts workshops with children.
UgandARTS PROJECT
Encouraging children to make music to heal and grow
Art4Development.Net has collaborated with Friends of Orphans (FRO) in Uganda to help create a therapeutic arts program and identify resources with especially collecting instruments like Base Drums, Side Drums, Drum Major Stick, Cymbals, Trumpets, Trombones, Bases, Baritones, French Horn, and Sousaphones.
There are thousands of vulnerable-traumatized children who need normalcy in their lives and a future with no fear.
Located in the war-torn district of Pader (Northern part of Uganda), Friends of Orphans (FRO) was formed to reduce the vulnerability of child mothers, orphans, former child soldiers, abductees, and women and protect their rights. FRO founder Anywar Ricky Richard, an ex-child soldier and survivor of the war, conceived FRO with his friends in 1999 to rehabilitate, reintegrate, and empower those impacted by the conflict and HIV/AIDS in Northern Uganda. FRO aims to do this through education, health, and peace-building activities, including the use of arts. If you are not familiar with the IDP camps and the story of northern Uganda, please watch the WARDANCE movie. WARDANCE documents the heartbreaking stories of children who have witnessed suffering in the middle of a warzone in northern Uganda: War Dance/The Movie
FRO has received the ‘Freedom Awards 2008’ from Free the Slaves, for being a remarkable example of an “organization working to prevent and eliminate slavery and bringing survivors to lasting freedom”.
Watch the formal announcement and the FRO documentary here.