TWO DECADES OF VISUAL ADVOCACY.
ONE YEAR OF ACTION.
Art Works Year 20 is a year-long series of programs, events, and celebrations marking two decades of visual advocacy for human rights and social justice.
BEHIND EVERY STORY IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ACTION.
BEHIND EVERY IMAGE IS A STORY.
20
YEAR 20 • IMPACT • NUMBERS • TIMELINE • CONNECTIONS • EVENTS • INSPIRATION • REFLECTIONS • GRATITUDE
A YEAR OF REMEMBRANCE—AND RESOLVE
Twenty years
of art
in service
of action.
Art Works Projects (AWP), a Chicago and The Hague-based nonprofit, confronts human rights abuses, challenges injustice, and mobilizes audiences beyond awareness to action through visual storytelling, new media, and public engagement.
Year 20 looks backward with gratitude, confronts the present with urgency, and builds toward a future where art does more than bear witness—it changes what happens next.
IMPACT FIRST
What changed
Because the story
was seen?
Numbers show how far AWP’s work traveled. These four areas show how the work moved beyond awareness toward action.
Stories entered rooms where decisions are made.
How visual storytelling informed policy, civic, educational, media, and institutional conversations.
Artists and advocates met power face to face.
How AWP connected lived experience with people positioned to amplify, fund, teach, and act.
ARTISTS DEVELOPED THEIR WORK—AND REACHED NEW AUDIENCES.
Through Emerging Lens, AWP provided project support, mentorship, and opportunities for emerging documentary photographers to develop their work and bring locally rooted human rights stories to wider audiences.
A story in one place became a conversation in another.
How AWP connected people, institutions, and movements across countries and continents.
01 / POLICY ENGAGEMENT
CHILDREN OF SYRIA
TESTIMONY REACHED CAPITOL HILL.
In 2014, Children of Syria brought photographs by six photojournalists documenting the war’s impact on children into the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Presented with UNHCR and the Better World Foundation, the exhibition included remarks by Senator John McCain—placing children’s lived experience of war inside a federal decision-making environment.
THE EVIDENCE
Russell Senate Office Building · UNHCR · Washington, D.C. · 2014
02 / LEADERSHIP ENGAGEMENT
CONGO/WOMEN → THE PROSECUTORS
FROM AWARENESS TO TOOLS OF JUSTICE.
AWP’s work on conflict-related sexual violence continued from Congo/Women into The Prosecutors, a feature documentary and targeted impact campaign focused on ending impunity. The campaign produced legal talking points for policymakers and professional training tools for lawyers and investigators—moving the work from public awareness toward practical tools for justice.
THE EVIDENCE
Legal talking points · Practitioner training · International legal dialogue
03 / CAREER DEVELOPMENT
EMERGING LENS
FROM FELLOWSHIP TO INTERNATIONAL VISIBILITY.
Emerging Lens Fellows Oyewole Lawal and Edwin Ndeke are turning locally rooted documentary projects into an international conversation about waste, labor, and environmental justice. Their work connects waste workers in Lagos and Nairobi and will be presented by AWP during The Hague Climate Week 2026. Separately, Lawal’s photography has earned independent recognition as a 2026 ZEKE Awards Honorable Mention, with his work to be showcased in Paris.
THE EVIDENCE
Emerging Lens · Lagos + Nairobi · The Hague Climate Week
Oyewole Lawal · 2026 ZEKE Awards · Paris
04 / INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
TRANSITIONS
FOUR PLACES.
ONE SHARED EXAMINATION OF JUSTICE.
Transitions brought creative teams from Chicago, Bogotá, Goma, and Sarajevo into a shared curatorial exchange on transitional justice. Rather than simply sending an exhibition from one place to another, the teams co-curated the work and paired it with workshops and community conversations—creating space to compare post-conflict experiences and build solidarity across very different local contexts.
THE EVIDENCE
Chicago · Bogotá · Goma · Sarajevo
Shared curation · Workshops · Community conversations
PHOTO: JEAN CHUNG · KABUL, AFGHANISTAN · 2006
PHOTO: JEAN CHUNG · KABUL, AFGHANISTAN · 2006
THE WORK OF WITNESS
Visual storytelling
makes distant
suffering harder to dismiss
The image is not the end of the work. It preserves testimony, shapes public memory, invites empathy, and opens a path from witnessing to action.
WHAT WE REFUSE TO SEE, WE ALLOW
REACH AT A GLANCE
TWENTY
YEARS
IN NUMBERS.
The numbers tell you how far the work has traveled. They won’t tell you what it cost someone to speak, what it took for a story to be believed, or what became possible when we refused to look away. The measure of this work is not only who saw—but who acted.
The story
is still being written.
PAST · PRESENT · FUTURE
2006–2025
We built the platform.
Across two decades, Art Works Projects created exhibitions, films, publications, and public programs with hundreds of artists and partners—moving human rights stories toward action worldwide.
2026–2027
We celebrate
by acting.
Year 20 carries that work forward through screenings, exhibitions, documentary campaigns, public programs, and conversations—turning reflection and recommitment into renewed action.
THE NEXT 20 YEARS
We widen the
lens.
AWP will connect human rights struggles at home and around the world, deepen partnerships, advance ethical storytelling, embrace new media, and build clearer pathways from story to action.
ACROSS BORDERS, CONNECTED BY STORY
The world
is not a collection of
separate crises.
Stories do not stop at borders. For twenty years, AWP has helped visual testimony travel—from the places where stories are lived to the places where they can be witnessed, discussed, taught, and acted upon.
SELECT A CONNECTION TO FOLLOW HOW A STORY MOVES.
WHAT’S NEXT.
THE ANNIVERSARY YEAR
PROGRAMS + EVENTS
A YEAR to GATHER
Exhibitions, film screenings, artist talks, workshops, public conversations, and anniversary celebrations—online and in communities around the world.
PEOPLE
TWENTY YEARS
OF
COLLABORATORS
Meet artists, advocates, partners, staff, and supporters who carried the work forward.
FILM + DIALOGUE
THE SHARP EDGE
OF PEACE
Cinema that centers lived experience and sparks urgent debate.
ARTISTS TO WATCH
What comes
next
Year 20 will spotlight visual storytellers expanding the possibilities of documentary work and visual advocacy.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
PROJECTS THAT
SHAPED US
Revisit landmark work, the people behind it, and the action it inspired.
AWP / NOW
THE STORY KEEPS MOVING.
Follow Year 20 as AWP, our artists, partners, and communities carry the work forward.
● LIVE / INSTAGRAM + FACEBOOK
THE INSPIRATION BOARD
WHAT MOVED
YOU TO SEE DIFFERENTLY?
Submit art, photography, film, journalism, audio, or other media that sparked curiosity, challenged assumptions, or moved you into action.
AWP reviews every submission before it is considered for publication.
THE PEOPLE
WHO CARRIED
THE WORK
FORWARD.
VOICES ACROSS TWENTY YEARS
We invited former and current Art Works Projects staff, board members, artists, and partners to reflect on what they witnessed, what changed, what relationships endured, and what AWP should carry into its next twenty years.
CURRENT STAFF
For years, the argument was “film or digital?” Today, we ask something more fundamental: “Is it real?” As artificial intelligence reshapes how images are made and perceived, I believe it will deepen our hunger for authenticity, lived experience, and human connection. A photograph made by a human being—rooted in another human being’s story—carries something A.I. cannot replicate.
STEVE BYNUM
Board Member, 2024–present · Interim Executive Director, March 2026–present
“
ARTIST OR COLLABORATOR
Working with EL has really opened up a lot of possibilities within exhibits that I had never thought of producing and could never have produced on my own.
RACHEL WOOLF
2018 Emerging Lens Recipient · Deported
“
FORMER STAFF OR BOARD MEMBER
We stand resolute in our commitment and our efforts to secure a world where all can walk in freedom, agency, and dignity.
SONYA ANDERSON
Former Board Chair
“
PARTNER OR SUPPORTER
Throughout the process, AWP was cooperative, responsive, and flexible. They truly understood the importance of letting local partners take the lead in the local contexts.
VELMA ŠARIĆ
Founder & President, Post-Conflict Research Center
Transitions Partner · Sarajevo
“
STAY CONNECTED
FOLLOW THE NEXT CHAPTER.
Receive Year 20 program announcements, artist stories, event invitations, and news about the work ahead. Then move into action!
WITH GRATITUDE
THE WORK
HAS ALWAYS
BEEN COLLECTIVE.
We honor and thank the many artists, communities, staff, board members, advisors, strategic team, host institutions, funders, and audiences who trusted AWP with stories—and helped carry those stories into the world!