ART WORKS Projects Celebrates “Year 20” into 2027 and Begins a New Era

ART WORKS Projects (AWP) celebrates 20 years of advancing human rights and global justice through photography, documentary film, and visual advocacy. Since our founding in 2006, we have presented projects on five continents, in dozens of countries, with hundreds of partners and artists. Together, we created literal, virtual, and emotional space for visual advocacy that inspired action at the grassroots, institutional, and policy levels.

We will mark our 20th year not as a single moment, but as a season of reflection and recommitment through 2027. Throughout “Year 20,” ART WORKS Projects will host events, experiences, conversations, and reflective moments to honor our history, uplift the artists and communities who shaped our work, and point toward future collaborations.

This moment calls us all to meet it with clarity. Today’s political climate and widening inequities make it plain that, in every country, human rights advocacy is essential.
As a global organization based in the United States and The Hague, AWP will look close to home and around the world to make these connections more visible, place domestic injustices in conversation with global human rights crises, and support new projects to strengthen our work with artists, advocates, survivors, journalists, and communities who insist on dignity, accountability, and justice for everyone, everywhere. 

As we begin our next chapter, we’re excited to share watershed updates with our community, reaffirming our presence and ongoing commitment to multi-platform , artist-led human rights advocacy.

Welcome, Steve Bynum, New Interim Executive Director!

AWP excitedly announces that current Board Member, Steve Bynum, will serve as our new 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, 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” derived from 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 currently serves as Chicago Public Media’s Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and is a consultant specializing in diverse, equitable, and inclusive practices in media. 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.

Welcoming Howard Conant as Board Chair!

We are also pleased to announce Howard Conant, Jr. as our new Board Chair! 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.

Thank You, 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 of 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. 

We invite you to join us! 

Watch this space!