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

emerging lens

Submission Period Closed

Thank you to all those who have submitted applications for the 2023-2024 Emerging Lens Fellowship. The Emerging Lens Fellowship is ART WORKS Projects’ signature program that awards project support including a $5,000 unrestricted grant and professional mentorship to emerging photographers working to document social justice and human rights issues in their own backyards and around the world. Learn more about the Emerging Lens Fellowship and this year’s open call: Climate, Pollution, and Environmental Justice.

2023-24 Fellowship recipients will be announced in December!

Brittany Greeson, 2021 Emerging Lens Fellow

Bryan Quintana-Salazar, 13, looks at an old family photo on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 at his father's old house in San Nicols, Mexico. Quintana-Salazar's mother suggested the family take the photo to send to her husband, after he was deported from the United States. This was the first time Quintana-Salazar had seen the photo displayed in his father's old house. Photo by Rachel Woolf.

Eugenio, Alejandra, and their daughter Emily pose for a picture close to the area known as "The Dump" in the outskirts of Huehuetoca, Mexico. Photo by Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands.

Hiding under a pine tree, an Eritrean refugee typed on his cell phone. Written in the dialogue box of the translator app was a clear request, “take us to Germany.” Lena* explained it was not safe to transport them from their current location. She recommended they stay put and organize transportation at night. Three days later, all three men sent a text message saying they were in Germany. *Name changed to protect her identity. Photo by Wil Sands.

Bassam Khabieh, Girls in Douma, Syria from Witnesses to War/After Syria, 2017.

Images: Rachel Woolf for Deported: A Family Divided. Oscar Castillo and Wil Sands for BordersCruzadas: A Collaborative Story, Wil Sands for Weapons of a Hybrid War, and Bassam Khabieh for After Syria

Finding Home is on view at 625 N Kingsbury Street through Dec 1 or by appointment: info@artworksprojects.org

On view

Finding Home: Open house Chicago 2023

“I only want my family to be well. My wife, my children. I want to be with them, together again, living a normal life, building our home with love and respect.”

– Lourdes Salazar-Bautista, on being separated from her children as a result of deportation.

Finding Home is a collaborative project developed by ART WORKS Projects as part of a Community Partnership with Open House Chicago 2023.

This exhibition showcases a selection of past and present AWP projects, along with films, objects, and stories centered on the importance of a sense of safety, autonomy, and personal and communal spaces as universal human rights.

As a complement to Finding Home, AWP has also commissioned a window installation for the Terrain Biennial. The work entitled Bridges by artist Juan Eduardo Flores, explores the relationship between hyper-surveillance and anonymity in border zones.

Featured Exhibition

Borderscruzadas: A collaborative story

AWP presents BordersCruzadas: A Collaborative Story, an exhibition in development from photojournalists Wil Sands, Oscar B. Castillo, that compiles documentary photography, research, and conversations in an effort to present both the physical and the symbolic boundaries that form America’s borders.

BordersCruzadas was on view at 625 N Kingsbury St. from April 12 – June 1.

BordersCruzadas in an ongoing project and we need your help to meet our goal of unlocking a $10K grant match in support of this project. Donate at the button below, all gifts will go directly towards the continued development of the BordersCruzadas project.

A family from Venezuela are seen walking along the train tracks searching for the best point of access to board a freight train, popularly known as “La Bestia” towards the northern border of Mexico and the U.S. Photo by Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands.

Brian, a young person on-the-move from Ecuador extends his arm from the freight
train as it moves along the Mexican landscape. Photo by Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands.

A person on-the-move checks their phone in the middle of a dust storm near Door 36, an
official service gate operated by Border Control, of the fence along the U.S. border
separating El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juárez. Photo by Oscar B. Castillo and Wil Sands.

Storytelling that Informs Policy: Addressing Refugees and Forced Displacement at The Hague Humanity Hub

Featured Event

Storytelling that informs Policy

On June 7, AWP, in partnership with The Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative (RAFDI) at The Wilson Center hosted a symposium titled: Storytelling that Informs Policy: Addressing Refugees and Forced Displacement.

This event took place at The Hague Humanity Hub as part of The Hague’s Justice Week events across the city.

Guests at the event had a chance to view AWP’s exhibition, Stories Across Borders, which is on view at the Hague Humanity Hub through June 23.

You can watch a video recording of the event and learn more on our event page.

16 Years, 30+ 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 16 years ago, we’ve supported more than 30 projects documenting stories around the world.

Jean Chung for Women between Peace and War: Afghanistan

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 sixteen 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.