ART WORKS PROJECTS ENTERS YEAR 20 WITH NEW LEADERSHIP
Twenty years after its founding, Art Works Projects enters a new chapter with gratitude for those who carried the work this far and confidence in what we can build together next. From Chicago and The Hague, AWP learned again and again that struggles confronting one community are rarely theirs alone. Through photography, documentary film, new media, and public engagement, we bring people into one another’s stories—not simply to witness injustice, but to recognize our shared humanity, learn from one another, and move together toward action.
Year 20 is both a celebration and a recommitment. We believe no community is peripheral, no people are merely the subjects of someone else’s story, and no part of the world has a monopoly on wisdom. The Global Majority holds generations of knowledge about resilience, resistance, repair, joy, and survival. When those experiences cross borders, local challenges can meet global imagination: what is learned in Bogotá can illuminate Chicago; what emerges from Sarajevo, Goma, Kabul, or The Hague can help another community envision what is possible. As AWP looks toward its next twenty years, we will keep creating the connections that allow stories to become relationships, relationships to become understanding, and understanding to become action.
STEVE BYNUM NAMED INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AWP is pleased to announce that Steve Bynum, a longtime collaborator and member of the Board, has been named Interim Executive Director. He brings decades of journalistic leadership, deep experience in human rights and social justice storytelling, and a long-standing relationship with AWP’s mission and community. Steve brings a commitment to global citizenship, ethical storytelling, and a deep belief in the power of visual art forms to drive public understanding and action. He has won numerous awards in broadcast excellence and lectures and moderates discussions on the media’s role in democracy, culture, and communities.
Since 1998, Steve has worked with Chicago Public Media, the parent company of WBEZ and the “Chicago Sun-Times.” For nearly 20 years, he served as Senior Producer for “Worldview with Jerome McDonnell,” WBEZ’s global affairs and news program. Steve’s philosophy in leading “Worldview” is derived from the words of the ancient Roman playwright Terence: “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.” His relationship with AWP began 20 years ago through “Worldview,” including a partnership to promote AWP’s seminal “DARFUR/DARFUR” projection project, and he continued to collaborate with AWP on human rights programming focused on India, conflict-related violence, and other urgent global issues.
Steve is Chicago Public Media’s Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and a consultant specializing in diverse, equitable, and inclusive media practices. He co-founded Worldview Solutions, a nonprofit media social enterprise that uses a global lens to advance solutions-oriented storytelling and justice-centered engagement. Steve also serves in leadership and advisory roles with several Chicago arts, media, and human rights organizations, including serving as a board member of the Chicago Committee of Human Rights Watch.
AWP Founder Leslie Thomas returns
AWP Founder Leslie Thomas returns to support Steve and AWP as Interim Director of Programming and Development! She will help guide our campaigns, partnerships, and advocacy work. Leslie brings back her wealth of knowledge and expertise from building AWP and her work as co-founder of MIRA Studios, a documentary-based production company focused on global advocacy against genocide, human trafficking, tyranny, ethnic cleansing, and gender apartheid. Leslie launched AWP into prominence by elevating the issue of conflict-related sexual violence through initiatives such as “DARFUR/DARFUR,” “Congo/Women,” “Women Between Peace and War: Afghanistan,” and the documentaries “The Prosecutors” and “Letter to My Child.” She is currently co-directing “Syria Justice” with long-term AWP collaborator Bassam Khabieh.
With Gratitude: Bora Un’s Leadership
Art Works Projects extends heartfelt gratitude to outgoing Managing Director Bora Un for her five years of dedicated leadership advancing our mission to use design and the arts to advocate for an end to grave human rights abuses! She helped expand AWP’s global reach, strengthen international partnerships, and deepen our commitment to ethical, justice-centered documentation and survivor engagement. Bora’s successes include establishing our presence in The Hague and producing and implementing numerous global installations and exhibitions. She helped nurture “Emerging Lens,” an AWP project supporting grassroots documentary photographers and long-term projects grounded in the experiences of those most deeply impacted by injustice. We remain grateful for Bora’s many contributions to AWP and for the lasting impact of her work.
HOWARD CONANT, JR. NAMED BOARD CHAIR
Howard Conant, Jr. has been named Board Chair of Art Works Projects. He founded and leads Urban Innovations, LLC, a Chicago-based real estate development and property management company. A long-time supporter and partner of AWP, Howard has generously hosted AWP’s studio at 625 North Kingsbury, a nonprofit incubator and programming space for community gatherings, exhibitions, film screenings, and advocacy workshops. Holding degrees from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, he serves on the boards of Chicago Public Media, Restore Justice Illinois, Writers Theatre, and the Chicago Committee of Human Rights Watch. Howard and his wife, Anne, remain stalwart supporters and benefactors of human rights and pro-democracy movements.
WITH GRATITUDE: IVÁN ARENAS
We offer deep thanks to Iván Arenas, our outgoing Board Chair, for his long-term care, leadership, and commitment to the organization! He helped guide AWP’s mission during a vital period of growth, supported programming across multiple continents, and strengthened work focused on migrant rights, historical memory, public engagement, and documentary advocacy. Iván’s scholarly and activist experience with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy brought tremendous value to AWP’s community and projects. His counsel helped us shape projects such as “43: The Aftermath of a Disappearance,” “Borders Cruzadas,” and many others focused on immigration rights and other justice issues. We are grateful that Iván will continue to serve as a leader of our Programming Committee.
What’s Ahead?
As Art Works Projects enters Year 20, we propel forward with gratitude, momentum, and a determined sense of purpose. Over the coming months and into 2027, we will gather with artists, advocates, survivors, partners, and supporters through events, exhibitions, conversations, and reflective moments to celebrate our justice-centered journey and inspire a collective, hopeful, and change-making future.
From our home bases in Chicago—a global city and historical nexus of societal, political, and technological transformation—and The Hague—the “International City of Peace and Justice,” we envision a next chapter infused with fierce, passionate, and unapologetic advocacy. We will always extend grace, value discomfort, and self-interrogate our actions and their impacts as we advance human rights and global justice. We will amplify voices and illumine the lives and dreams of the oft-unheard and oft-unseen to move people toward justice—in Chicago, across the United States, and around the world.
The next chapter is already underway. Explore Art Works Year 20 and join us in what comes next.