Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
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NATWORKING
Natworking is an association promoting social and local development, soft tourism, and networking. The organization mostly speaks to those under 35 and encourages them to adopt a new and healthier lifestyle, redesigning work-life balance in terms of sustainable human development. Remote working can be an occasion to improve life habits as well as to enhance urban regeneration in urban and rural areas which have been abandoned.
T12-LAB
T12 Lab is a cultural and research organization that uses design to pursue a mission with a social value: regenerate the urban space by recovering wastelands and run-down areas in order to promote inclusion and more robust social cohesion. How do they do that? Through networking and projects that involve the local community. T12 Lab turns design and urban art into means of engaging communities, including all layers of society, especially the most marginalized ones, and, ultimately, generating a positive social change. The organization invests heavily in cultural exchange efforts. It offers to the members of these underserved communities the chance to develop professional skills and start a career in manufacturing with the involvement of professionals.
STREET PROJECT FOUNDATION
Street Project Foundation is a youth-serving organization that uses creative arts to facilitate youth empowerment, social mobilization, and cross-cultural dialogue. Working between Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, and Port Harcourt, the organization reaches three thousand youths with the aim to sparkplug a generation of active citizens, young brave leaders able to question the complexity of the world, advocate for their beliefs, and start a positive social change. That’s why SPF is committed to giving youth from underserved backgrounds a space where they are free to speak up and amplify those voices through advocacy, media campaigns, content creation, and, in short, artistic activism.
BAUMHAUS
Baumhaus is a social cooperative that organizes innovative educational programs for younger generations in collaboration with schools, vocational training centers, companies, institutions, and cultural operators, to promote critical thinking and imagination. Its goal is to build a society where everyone, regardless of background-origin, has access to quality education and the chance to develop creative skills. By democratizing cultural experiences, Baumhaus wants to demonstrate creativity and imagination are innate features in everyone, and everyone can contribute to a collective creative process to analyze and address social issues from a different and unique point of view.
TRAMA PLAZA LAB
Trama Plaza is a Milan-based non-profit organization that promotes ethical and sustainable fashion and design and aims to raise awareness on the topic of sustainability in the textile industry through arts and education. Trama Plaza wants to strengthen awareness of the value of ethic and circular manufacturing while encouraging a broader discourse on the relationship between the consumer and the product, social inclusion, and environmental consciousness. The organization’s activities mainly focus on promoting a sustainable development model through an innovative approach that uses art and culture to raise awareness among citizens, institutions, and private enterprises.
SOMALI ARTS FOUNDATION
SAF is a contemporary art institution which aims to promote and create environments for contemporary art to flourish. SAF seeks to use the arts to ignite critical discourses around ideas on identity, memory, loss, healing, and self-expression and to function as the intersection where great art and courageous conversations are catalysts for a more connected, civic, and empathetic Somalia.
SOUP AND SOCKS, E.V.
Soup and Socks’ vision is a world in which everybody can unfold their potential, therefore its mission is to engage the refugee community, Greek host community, and the international community, promoting self-reliance, solidarity, and trust, in the firm belief that purpose, community and dignity are important for a person’s identity. They provide a space where anyone, regardless of background or skill level, can get rid of limiting labels, such as “being a refugee,” and become active, creative craftspeople, tailors, carpenters, welders, artists, and designers. Here the individual is celebrated and has access to opportunity, education, and a community.
ELIZABETH KOSTOVA FOUNDATION
Elizabeth Kostova Foundation was born 15 years ago to support the full development of Bulgarian literature and literary system within national borders as well as abroad. The foundation wants to stimulate a vibrant literary environment in Bulgaria by promoting the teaching and professionalization of creative writing and assuring writers a safe space to explore their creativity and share ideas. Combined with a scouting activity, its work empowers and inspires a new generation of talented writers by building an international network around the Bulgarian literary system. The foundation is also committed to encouraging Bulgarian literature’s internationalization and promoting its translation and publication abroad.
XFARM
XFarm’s work revolves around restoring lands seized from criminal organizations and giving them a new purpose. They decided to invest in their territory and bet on the local community by promoting knowledge as a collective good that needs to be nurtured and shared and conveying sustainability and transparency as their core values. Sustainable agricultural projects combine with educational programs and cultural initiatives to build a solid and culturally vivid community.
SUNSHINE CINEMA
Sunshine Cinema works at the crossing between cinematography and ecology to increase film literacy in rural areas of South Africa but in a sustainable way. It is indeed Africa’s first solar-powered cinema network that uses film art to promote a positive social transformation, even in South Africa’s most remote areas. To them, cinema is a tool to spark conversation, promote active citizenship and raise awareness about topics such as gender, land, heritage conservation, economic development, and social cohesion among audiences who lack access to quality informative content. A tool to transform collective and individual lives, addressing youth unemployment by providing young people with professional training in the field.
AMATEA
Amatea appeals to crucial topics in the history of Ukraine and Europe aiming to develop media literacy, critical thinking and collaboration. The organizations works with young people form marginalized backgrounds, that learn basic technical skills of script writing and video production as well as storytelling methods and interpreting them through collaborative methods and different means of artistic expression. Through art, they want to raise awareness of these socio-political issues, and to prevent discrimination, prejudice, political speculations and manipulations, marking these problems.
DARB 1718 CONTEMPORARY ART AND CULTURE CENTER
Darb 1718’s was founded to promote a positive, lasting social change through artistic and cultural enrichment, inspired by Cairo’s traditional role as a prominent center for African and Middle Eastern cultural and creative environment. It is a modern and vibrant contemporary art space that works for a better future, looking back at the city’s Roman, Islamic, and Coptic heritage. Darb 1718 aims indeed to keep local craftsman tradition alive through contemporary young Egyptian artists’ work and promote a positive social change by fostering the current art movement in the country.
KALAVERSE INITIATIVE RECORD
Kalaverse initiative record aims to empower marginalized communities in Africa through Film and Design, specifically African girls and marginalized communities, while conveying values of inclusion, continuous learning, and passion. They offer every year professional training in filmmaking for young girls, encouraging them to tell their experiences of young African women through the film language. The organization also supports the Ugandan design sector, promoting the intersection between contemporary and traditional local design. Their ultimate purpose is to inspire the next generation of African leaders in film and design as well as preserve Ugandan visual identity.
OPERA FOR PEACE
Opera for Peace is an Italian NGO that operates internationally to encourage young opera professionals to grow and develop their talents while also creating a network. The organization offers support and guidance to those emerging talents from underserved backgrounds and advocates for social justice and equity, trying to make up for the lack of career opportunities. They organize high-level training projects, concerts, masterclasses, educational exchanges, and cultural diplomatic events in order to inspire opera’s next-generation artists. While operating at a local level, the organization aims to build a global cultural community that connects young artists with opera houses, orchestras, festivals, and institutions from all over the world, in the belief that the diversity of cultural heritages can be an added value in the pursue the excellence in opera and have a positive social impact.
JAIL TIME RECORDS
Jail Time Record is a collective of musicians, producers, and filmmakers. They work with detainees and ex-detainees to create music. Initially born as a music project in the Central Prison of Douala, Cameroon, Jail Time Records is now a non-profit music label and the first permanent recording studio inside an African prison. The organization aims to scout and promote detainees to unlock their talents in music, helping social reintegration and addressing the bias against people who have undergone incarceration at the same time. Jail Time Record gives voices to those who often remain unheard, offering a platform for artists to freely express themselves and start reinventing their future in society.
THE WONDER CABINET
The Wonder Cabinet is a cultural space in Bethlehem, Palestine. Rooted in proximity with international ambitions, the Wonder Cabinet gathers an ensemble of people and initiatives from different backgrounds, experiences, and sectors, to exchange know-how and co-create. It is a community-based, flexible, inclusive, and progressive platform at the service of artists and students to give birth to unforeseen knowledge, leading up to creativity to imagine, conceive and implement multidisciplinary projects and productions while providing the local youth with opportunities for employment, collaboration, and training. By empowering the Palestinian creative scene and by fostering dialogue, cooperation, and mobility beyond its borders, the Wonder Cabinet values and aims to enhance the local capacity to create, addressing inequalities in the cultural sector.
BRIDGES FOR MUSIC
Bridges for Music considers art an essential agent for social change. That’s why they focus on providing underserved youth with quality arts education, bridging the gap they have to face to become professionals in the creative industry. Their schools provide safe spaces and holistic learning programs to enhance the creative potential of young people at-risk and thrive local creative industry at the same time. By providing music training, they want to increase knowledge, creativity, and networking as well as upskill inspired agents of change.
INTEGRART
IntegrART is an NGO association based in Treviso, Italy fostering social inclusivity of vulnerable subjects through the arts. IntegrART acts as a mobile incubator of the direct connection between the excellencies and the vulnerable people, mainly women, young people, and immigrants, organizing courses, workshops, and projects in schools and settings of cultural gatherings.
QUINDICI19
Quindici19 is an Italian cultural association founded back in 2016 by a group of high school students that, over the years, has become a multicultural space for intergenerational dialogue, where young people can gather, discuss social issues, elaborate solutions and mobilize. They use creativity to find innovative solutions to contemporary issues, highlighting the link between cultural and social growth. Quindi19 wants young people to raise their voices and become change-makers who use creativity to shape a better world.
NJABALA FOUNDATION
Njabala Foundation is an organization based in Kampala, Uganda, that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom. Njabala is a multi-faceted campaign sourcing inspiration from a popular Ugandan myth of Njabala to facilitate conversations on womanhood. To facilitate the possibility for the work of women artists to be seen, Njabala Foundation campaigns in various ways against gender inequality in the art world by organizing art exhibitions and events exclusively dedicated to highlighting the work of women artists.
LA GUARIMBA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
La Guarimba is an international film festival and association based in Calabria, Southern Italy. The organization’s name means “safe space” in the Venezuelan indigenous language: it is a safe space where marginalized youth can explore the art of film and learn how to express themselves, nurturing individual and collective growth. La Guarimba invests in its local community to show youth the incredible potential of Calabria and inspire them to build the future they dream of in their homeland instead of searching for it elsewhere. The organization aims to demonstrate how cinema can play a significant role in the cultural world, becoming a medium of active democracy and advocacy and bringing social innovation.
AFRIKERA ARTS TRUST
Afrikera Arts Trust (AAT) is an independent performing arts institution that has operated since 2015 in Zimbabwe. It supports the development of dance culture in the country and the whole SADC region and the cross-contamination of the various performing arts genres. A wide range of programs contributes to delivering quality dance and performing arts education to those young talents whose potential threatens to remain undeveloped due to economic hardship. AAT’s programs also support women to take the stage and finally address the lack of black female dancers in Zimbabwe. AAT is a true dance pioneer in its country, running the only 3-year full-time professional dance training in Zimbabwe.
SORRY, NO ROOMS AVAILABLE
Sorry, No Rooms Available is a contemporary art residency based in Uzhgorod and deeply rooted in its territory, where one of the few private non-profit art-oriented organizations. The residency encourages participants to put their work in dialogue with the place, the Transcarpathian region’s cultural heritage, its rich and complex history, and the background of a multicultural periphery, inspiring artists to seek new forms of self-expression. The organization aims to safeguard artists and their work from war threats.
CHEAP
CHEAP is a public art initiative that blends art and activism, curatorial practice, and social responsibility by conveying fundamental social messages through poster art. Its work overturns the collective imagination on public art, by promoting a visual art that comes over the urban environment and establishes a conversation with residents. Cities’ walls are their stage, where social campaigns, events promotion, and ideas find a space to reach the widest audience possible, aiming to awaken consciences and train aware citizens through a really democratic medium and language.
NORTH LUZON CINEMA GUILD, INC.
North Luzon Cinema Guild was founded to use film language not only as a medium for self-expression but also as a mirror of society in a region – North Luzon – where film programs are few and often inaccessible to the majority. The organization works to fill in the gaps in filmmaking training opportunities that affect communities and film enthusiasts in the Northern Philippines. Choosing cinema as the primary narrating medium, North Luzon Cinema Guild aims to gather, train and inspire emerging filmmakers in its community and to retrieve and safeguard local culture by organizing workshops, festivals, educational programs, and film grant programs.
PLUG
Italian organization Plug’s work uses design to promote social and environmental sustainability by igniting a public discussion, sharing ideas, and impacting people’s lifestyles. Their numerous and heterogeneous projects aim to spread knowledge on sustainability in every aspect and create an international network of designers and creative minds that work with social and environmental sustainability.
KULTURNA UDRUGA JUTRO
Kulturna Udruga Jutro’s mission is to empower the Croatian community using the tools of heritage, education, and multidisciplinary arts to build an open, robust, and just society that is part of an active global art and knowledge ecosystem. The organization’s work advocates for values such as imagination, experimentation, curiosity, learning, and collaboration: all of these are fundamental to creating a better future starting from the foundation of the past. Their workshops and exhibitions aim to inspire Eastern European Youth to pursue an artistic career and to become social change actors, by promoting active participation, sharing, and co-creation.
UG DAH TEATAR
Ug Dah Teatar is an independent, professional, contemporary theater troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theater techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change locally and globally. Their artistic activities mix theatre, dance, and visual arts to inspire a personal and social transformation, developing the vision of a non-violent and tolerant society. Moreover, it provides high-quality training opportunities for emerging directors, actors, and other professionals in the theatre industry. The research center is a space for continually exchanging knowledge, experience, and ideas between artists and participants from different theatrical and national traditions through projects, festivals, workshops, and meetings.
KUTA ARTS FOUNDATION
Kuta Arts Foundation is an Art Community in Abeokuta, Nigeria, working to enable an environment for visual artists and other creatives to showcase & improve their talents, exhibit and promote their works, and ultimately impact their community through Art. The foundation pushes to advance creativity, innovation, and collaboration for youth development and productivity, by providing a platform for accelerating ideas, creativity, and collaboration hinged on promoting arts, education, culture, and social change. Their vision is to build a community that acts as a catalyst for youth and supports their artistic talents by mobilizing the youth’s innate creativity and creating enabling environments for artistic expression.
MOONGIRLS LIVE LBG
Moongirls Live is an artistic activist organization that aims, through graphic novels, to encourage a richer conversation about women and queer lives, and their roles in society. By providing edgy, modern storytelling through graphic novels, Moongirls Live aims to encourage its audience to question patriarchal rules, norms, and ideas about gender. Moongirls Live believes that only through truthful and honest equity of the sexes can there be universal progress and aims to contribute to the several efforts towards achieving that by working with creativity, to tackle the widespread problem of patriarchal homophobia and transphobia, challenging stereotypes, empowering women, and to enhance community interaction and engagement through meaningful debate and open conversation.
HIBISCUS
Give voice to African women: that’s the ultimate goal Hibiscus pursues. Since its establishment in 2020, this organization has aimed to inspire present and future generations of African and black women and, therefore, contribute to building a more just and inclusive society, where being a woman doesn’t constitute an obstacle to self-realization, through the transformative power of literature and storytelling. They support women’s issues by organizing storytelling and slam poetry sessions, movie screenings, and conversations in order to foster cultural growth and democratize literature.
REFLEKTOR FOUNDATION
Reflektor Foundation is a mission-driven creative studio based in Sofia that sees art, science, and new media to promote a social transformation. The foundation supports marginalized youth against the social injustices they suffer from and advocates for disadvantaged communities’ rights. The creation of art becomes activism, raising awareness and igniting a public discussion on the most urgent social issues, such as mental health, poverty, women’s rights, and racism. And creativity becomes a tool to envision a better future, more equal and just at all societal levels.
MILANO MEDITERRANEA
Associazione Milano Mediterranea is a participatory Art center offering opportunities for art residencies to young artists from the Mediterranean diaspora living in Italy. The organization supports their talents and careers against the stigmatization they suffer from formal institutions.
ART AND RESISTANCE THROUGH EDUCATION
Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE) is an NGO based in NYC, inspiring young people to become human rights advocates. The organization engages youth from underserved communities to promote positive social change through visual arts, providing them with tools, skills, and spaces that are too often out of reach.
MAFWA THEATRE CIC
To tell refugees’ experiences through theater that’s the purpose of Mafwa Theatre, a non-profit organization based in Leeds that promotes social integration using dramatic art. Focusing on refugees’ and asylum seekers’ stories, the organization celebrates the importance and beauty of diversity and the added value intercultural dialogue can be for present-day society using drama as a common ground where all of this can happen. Mafwa is ultimately a platform to nurture young talents from migrant backgrounds and give them the opportunity to start a career in Theatre. They aim to amplify migrant voices through the artistic medium, overcome barriers of xenophobia and indifference, and advocate for migrant and underserved communities’ rights.
FRAGMENTS THEATRE
Fragments Theatre’s mission is to spread all genres of art: theatre, cinema, circus, and visual arts – throughout the city of Jenin and the local community. Working with children, youth, and women, they promote art as a tool for cultural interaction, foster the creative talents of marginalized members of society and offer a safe space for community members to express themselves. Art, to them, means building bridges, collaboration, a sense of community, and, of course, creativity. Their work encourages Jenin’s art scene and contributes to Palestinian society’s development by fostering collaboration between actors, artists, technicians, and the local community.
ATELIER PICHA
Atelier Picha is an independent platform based in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Here young artists and cultural operators find a safe space to gather, share experiences and practices and promote culture and art in all its forms. The main scope of the organization’s work is to support the development of contemporary art, fostering the cultural sector invisible to the eyes of the Congolese government. Atelier Picha not only organizes the Biennale de Lubumbashi – the most significant image art event in Central Africa – but has also developed a Research and Arts Center that supports young emerging artists in the local community. It is a safe space where young artists can get professional training and the chance to express themselves.
ART APARAT
Art Aparat is a Serbian organization that strongly believes in the transformative power of music, able to envision a better future and more just society by conveying values of equality, solidarity, democracy, tolerance, and respect. Their work focuses on bolstering marginalized groups and communities and advocating for inclusion by offering psychological support, fostering the development of cognitive skills, supporting intercultural dialogue, and using art and creativity as tools for self-growth both as individuals and as members of a community. Creativity, empathy, and inclusion are the key factors linking all their cultural projects that encourage the intellectual, social, emotional, and educational development of children, youth, and adults from vulnerable groups through creativity and music.
BUILD THE FUND WITH US
The Fund seeks to partner and engage creatives across sectors, geographies, and industries to share learnings, experiences, insights, and collaborative funding models to help widen the supporters’ community.
To discuss partnership opportunities, contact:
Marina Mussapi, Strategy Implementation Manager
Scroll down to learn more about our first-year cohort.
THE 10 CREATIVITY PIONEERS OF 2021
- Ker Thiossane, Senegal
- SAF, Somalia
- Mitrovica Rock School, Kosovo
- Visual Voices, Cyprus
- Oroko Radio and Artist Residency, Ghana
- Kwani Trust, Kenya
- Fundación Biblioseo, Colombia
- Likikiri Collective, Sud Sudan
- iKasi Creative Media, South Africa
- NYC SALT, US
Kwani Trust – Nairobi, Kenya
Kwani Trust is a literary network dedicated to developing quality creative writing and committed to the growth of the creative industry through the publishing and distribution of contemporary African writing. They organize training and literary events, establish global literary networks, and have also developed an internationally recognized literary festival that provides training for writers.
Somali Arts Foundation (SAF) - Mogadishu, Somalia
SAF is a contemporary arts institution which aims to promote and create environments for contemporary art to flourish. SAF seeks to use the arts to ignite critical discourses around ideas on identity, memory, loss, healing, and self-expression, and to function as the intersection where great art and courageous conversations are catalysts for a more connected, civic, and empathetic Somalia.
Likikiri Collective – Juba, South Sudan
Likikiri Collective is a multimedia arts and education organization that uses the arts and humanities, cultural heritage, and creativity to address social issues. They promote dialogue, support sustainable development, and build the creative industries in South Sudan by integrating the arts and culture into the formal and informal educational systems and the humanitarian and development sectors.
Fundación Biblioseo - Bogotá, Colombia
Fundación Biblioseo’s mission is to turn libraries into gardens of ideas, where young people are educated as Makers and connected with opportunities to lead change and serve their communities. They have been recognized for their innovation in the social and library sector. Their main work is focused on the Biblioteca de la Creatividad, which has become the most relevant success story of its model.
Oroko Radio and Artist Residency - Accra, Ghana
Oroko Radio is a platform that connects and empowers local and international artists of different disciplines through conversation and collaboration to enrich the global cultural landscape. They aim to reclaim narratives from the African communities, with a focus on local perspectives in Accra. Oroko connects artists from Ghana, the African continent and its diaspora, and the world.
Kër Thiossane - Dakar, Senegal
A Cultural space for the artistic and social experiment in Senegal, Kër Thiossane is a venue for research, residence, creation, and training dedicated to social and artistic innovation. Through a large range of activities, Kër Thiossane enables a larger public, often unused to contemporary art, to discover art and multimedia as tools for knowledge that can be appropriated.
Mitrovica Rock School – Mitrovica, Kosovo
Mitrovica Rock School was founded in 2008 to bring together Serb, Albanian, and other youth through a shared love for music. MRS directly connects youth from Mitrovica’s divided communities through rock music activities. MRS not only brings back a rock music heritage that Mitrovica was known for before the war, it’s also one of the few places where youth can safely meet people from the other side.
Visual Voices - Nicosia, Cyprus
Visual Voices is a non-profit organization supporting youth artists from communities affected by violent conflict. They promote the creation of contemporary visual art that reflects the desire for positive social change and build the space for these ideas to be shared. Visual Voices focuses on multiple approaches to creating community dialogue for positive social change.
iKasi Creative Media – George, South Africa
iKasi Creative works with youth to help them find their voice and tell their story. They reach out to rural areas in South Africa to bring relevant skills in film, television, and digital media, using accessible technology to create content and kickstart creative economies, linking youth to job opportunities and foster creativity and entrepreneurship to encourage them to stay in their hometowns.
NYC SALT - New York, US
NYC SALT’s mission is to empower underserved youth in New York City through an understanding of the visual industry. SALT creates opportunities and pathways to college and career for youth from diverse backgrounds who are dedicated to careers in the arts, by engaging them in a mix of professional photography instruction, college-preparatory workshops, and career exposure.
