FineActs Annual Report 2022

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print design by

OUR WORK IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE KIND INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT OF

Hi! We are
Fine Acts.

Some focus on doing one thing, but doing it right. We focus on doing the right things.

Some have a clear line of attack, a fixed strategy. Our master plan is to not have one.

Perfect is a flawed concept, rooted in grand expectations
but blooming into common disappointment. Perfect is not bold. It is timid. It is predefined, it is boring, it is a lifeboat of mediocrity in an ocean of possibility.
‍
We choose to keep swimming.

This annual report was also published as a set of Origami papers. Because you can – and should – play with anything. See instruction pages on how to fold specific animals, or create entirely new shapes yourself.

Fun over format, forever.

Mission

Fine Acts is a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact. We work across issues, across geographies, across fields, and across art mediums, and try to make sense of a daunting world in joyful ways.

We operate at the intersections of advocacy, art, tech, and science, and practice playtivism – creating various multidisciplinary spaces for play and experimentation in activism.

All our work – from public art interventions, through videos, installations, books, board games and illustrations, to platforms and experimental formats – is rooted in hope, joy and openness. Fine Acts’ campaigns and art actions aim to foster public understanding and engagement on a vast range of social and environmental issues; we also work to support and empower organizations across the globe through trainings, open resources, and tailored creative work.

Our Work

We devise creative campaigns and projects that raise awareness, trigger action, and foster greater support for social and environmental issues.
We develop effective formats to excite the art and tech communities to support the human rights & climate movements.
We work with nonprofits from around the world, and design tailor-made creative campaigns for their needs.
We also consult and train civil society actors in embracing art and play as tools for social change.
We see openness as a true force multiplier, and place it at the core of our work. Much of what we produce is open and free to use by others.

Origami Instructions

Origami designs by Tala El Fayoumi

This annual report was also published as a set of Origami papers. Because you can – and should – play with everything. Get a square piece of paper and follow the instructions below.

At Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene, our participatory installation at COP27, we asked delegates to fold their gamebook pages into an animal-shaped origami – considering the fact that we are not alone on Earth, and the need to keep in mind all species when taking decisions affecting the environment.

This is how you fold a cat.

Click the cards to
fold a cat

How to fold a cat origami: Step 8 - Cat is ready.

Cat

How to fold a cat origami: Step 6 - It should look like this.

Draw face (Optional)

It should look like this

Flip Over

fold both layers down

fold upwards starting at the center crease upward to create ears

Fold and Unfold

fold downwards corner to corner

This is how you fold a duck.

Fold and Unfold

fold so that edges lay
parallel to the center crease

Flip Over

fold in half

rotate 90º

fold upwards along the line shown

fold downwards along
the line shown

duck

How to fold a duck origami: Step 5 - Rotate 90°.

This is how you fold a dog.

fold downwards corner to corner

fold and unfold

fold downwards (about 1 cm away
from the center crease) along line
shown to create ears

fold top layer upwards

fold bottom layer to the back

fold tip down to create dog snout

draw eyes (optional)

dog

This is how you fold a dove.

fold inward corner to corner

fold both layers along the line shown

create a crease about a cm away
from edge and fold top layer outwards

flip over

fold in half

fold front and back sides upwards
along the line shown

fold down along the line shown
to create beak

dove

This is how you fold a dove.

fold inward corner to corner

fold both layers along the line shown

create a crease about a cm away
from edge and fold top layer outwards

flip over

fold in half

fold front and back sides upwards
along the line shown

fold down along the line shown
to create beak

dove

Our Work / Climate Change

Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene

At COP27 – the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference – we launched our experiential installation Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene, an immersive participatory artwork that we created with prominent Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist Bahia Shehab.

A pink and white tent with a sign that says heaven and hell.

The artwork engages the audience on the possible futures we face if we do – or don’t – change our attitudes towards the environment. It is informed by a famous study which concluded that people’s beliefs about climate change are closely tied to the temperature they’ve recently experienced – in other words, people sitting in warmer rooms are more likely to say that ‘global warming’ is a problem.

We turned this insight into an impactful artistic experience to raise questions around responsibility, participation and action. Since we couldn’t crank up the heat in COP27’s plenary rooms, we invited decision-makers to experience two competing scenarios for the future in our public art installation.

From the outside, its two rooms looked entirely identical. Before entering, each visitor was given a page from a gamebook (printed fiction that invites the reader to participate in the story by making choices).

Based on their choices, and respective sustainability score, visitors were guided to enter either ‘Heaven’ or ‘Hell’ – where all their senses were targeted by very different sights, sounds, temperatures, and smells.

The work at COP27 was met by general excitement, enthusiasm and praise. Word-of-mouth generated perpetual lines of people waiting to engage with it. During the two-week conference, over 3100 delegates experienced our installation (2097 went to heaven, and 1019 went to hell). We always encouraged participants to visit the other room as well.

The installation was widely covered by more than 30 international media, including the Washington Post, Artnet, Forbes, Yahoo News, and many outlets in the MENA region, earning critical acclaim and reaching hundreds of thousands. In addition, we reached over 70 000 people through our social media accounts.

Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene will be made replicable under an open license – with its key characteristics and aesthetics published online in a DIY manual, so that movements and collectives around the world can recreate it in their cities to initiate conversations around climate change.

HELL

Hell is a small, dark, angled, claustrophobic space.
It smells of sh*t, decomposing fruit and hospital rooms. It sounds like construction, drilling, and disaster. It is set to 38°C degrees – the Arctic’s highest recorded temperature to date, as well as the body temperature over which a person is generally considered ill/unwell.

HEAVEN

Heaven, on the other hand, is a light, bright, gentle, domed interior. It is set at a comfortable temperature of 21°C degrees. You are surrounded by the sounds of nature – birds, water, wind, leaves rustling – and scents of freshness and orange blossoms.

“The aim of the work is to make people feel like stakeholders in our collective future and to drive action towards making change possible. We are at the point of Earth’s story where we, as the main protagonist, need to make a crucial decision. By our collective effort we can turn this planet into heaven or hell.”

– Bahia Shehab

fineacts.co/heaven-and-hell

Our Work / Climate Change

Pyramids of Garbage return to Egypt

Pyramids of Garbage, our installation that we created in 2020 together with artist Bahia Shehab and Countdown – TED’s global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, came back – bigger and bolder!

A man standing on a large stack of garbage.

An aerial view of a building in pink and purple.

All photos courtesy of Zero Co.

In 2022, the installation returned to Egypt just ahead of COP27, this time thanks to Zero Co, a zero-waste company. Erected in the Western Desert, just outside of Cairo, the immense structure was made using the equivalent of 1 million plastic water bottles, collected from the Nile River, weighed a whopping 20 tons, and was taller than a three-story building.

By placing (AGAIN!) an actual pyramid of garbage in Cairo – the home of the only surviving wonder of the world, the great pyramids of Giza – the artwork challenges our overproduction and overconsumption. “Now is the time for us to rethink our legacy on this planet. Are we going to come together to build a sustainable future for all of us, or will our new legacy be pyramids of garbage?” asks the artist Bahia Shehab.

The 2022 stunt kicked off the 100YR CLEANUP initiative, which seeks to fund large-scale cleanups over the next 100 years and drive accountability for the single-use plastic problem. Consumers and businesses both can join the initiative to sponsor the removal of “bundles of trash” and contribute to future cleanups around the world.

Incoming – more works on climate!

In 2022, we also started working on the production of two more public artworks in two countries in the MENA region which face serious climate change challenges. For this, we organized an initial call for proposals, sent it out to a longlist of artists in the region, and selected two concepts to further develop and produce. Both will be revealed in early 2023, and will be published under an open license:

Jordan is the second most water-scarce country in the world. For this project, focusing on the local crisis, we are collaborating with award-winning, Jordan-based, Palestinian photographer Laura Boushnak.
Under Your Seat is a public art stunt that makes the issue of climate change hit close to home. This work is developed in collaboration with Tunisian artist and creative director Moez Achour.

fineacts.co/pyramids-of-garbage

Our Work / Climate Change

The Advantages of Facing Extinction

At TED2022, we launched The Advantages of Facing Extinction, our participatory art piece.

No more zoom calls. No pressure to leave a legacy behind and be remembered. Finally being part of a historic event. There are SO MANY advantages of facing extinction. As an ode to silver linings, we made a piece to celebrate climate change ending it all.

The Advantages of Facing Extinction is a work by Fine Acts, created in collaboration with TED, and inspired by the Guerrilla Girls – an anonymous collective of feminist women artists, and their ironic & iconic poster campaign The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist, exposing sexual discrimination in the art world.

As this is a living participatory piece, we also accepted contributions! We invited anyone – at the TED conference, as well as online – to tell us why they are excited about facing extinction. The work was previewed by thousands of people on site, and we also received hundreds of submissions – with the best ones to be added to future iterations of the work online and offline, including a series of installations we are planning around the world in 2023.

This artwork, while a playful insight into the human experience, is also a call to arms. We believe that where there is fun, there is hope. And where there is hope, there is future. But this future requires action.

‍

A woman looking at a wall with many sticky notes.

Photos: Jon Lowenstein

fineacts.co/extinction

Our Work / Climate Change

Team Earth

For Team Earth, we worked with 9 talented eco-conscious artists to spotlight 9 outstanding climate heroes. We launched the campaign during COP27, as a reminder of the types of voices we should be putting center stage and listening closely to.

A woman with long hair and a pink background.

Illustrations: Vanessa Mundle – Minttu, Preeti Singh, David Espinosa for Fine Acts

From climate activists to environmental defenders from all corners of the world – the portrayed people are meant to serve as an example of the countless others who have dedicated their lives to protecting and saving the planet; and in this way illustrate our common potential – and hope – that we can change climate change.

However, our project is also a reminder that today around the world climate activists and environmental defenders are massively oppressed, detained, imprisoned, attacked, and killed for standing up to polluters and profiteers. Our campaign, which reached almost 240 000 people on Instagram alone, made a point that there can’t be climate justice without human rights or open civic space, so we urged people to speak up for the protectors and stand for the wrongfully imprisoned.

For this work, we collaborated with our partners Global Witness (who also helped us with the selection) – working to hold companies and governments accountable for their disregard for the planet, and their failure to protect human rights.

All portraits of Team Earth are published under an open license – so that anyone can use them to amplify their climate message. So far, the works have been downloaded over 500 times.

fineacts.co/team-earth

Our Work / Climate Change

Artists For Climate

Remember The Climate Collection, our amazing FREE visual library of illustrations to change climate change? If you’re not already using it for climate action, it’s time!

A group of people sitting around a table.

A man kissing a baby in front of a poster.

Photos: TED, Nataliya Baramska, ArtLink

All artworks in it are part of the Artists For Climate open call that we launched together with TED Countdown in 2021. Its goal was to build a unique collection of open-license art, with a focus on hope and solutions, to serve as an invaluable resource for climate change awareness. The works are available to climate groups, campaigners and educators to use and adapt non-commercially, in order to shape the climate conversation. Close to 1500 artists from 95 countries joined the open call, with 2200+ submissions. The outstanding works of a total of 50 Selected Artists and 46 Finalists were chosen to enter The Climate Collection. Since then, the artworks have been used thousands of times.

In addition, in April 2022, a selection of awe-inspiring illustrations from The Climate Collection got featured during TED2022 in Vancouver, Canada, as part of TED Countdown’s social space.

In August 2022, we launched a public art exhibition with a selection of illustrations in Sofia, adapted to the local context with slogans in Bulgarian. The campaign’s messages were consulted with a group of local climate activists. The exhibition prints were later on “adopted” by the National Museum of Natural History to be installed in their premises.

In October 2022, together with our partners at ArtLink, we launched our augmented reality exhibition Artists for Climate for the international Climate Change Summit in Bucharest, Romania. The exhibition consisted of a series of physical cubes that could be scanned via the ArtLink app, which then brings to life a virtual showcasing of a selection of 20 featured artworks from our Climate Collection. The exhibition aimed to inspire people to imagine a better climate future.

artistsforclimate.org

PEACE & DEMOCRACY

Being Ukraine

In the first days of the war in Ukraine, Fine Acts started working on Being Ukraine – a series of creative collaborations with Ukrainian artists, with the goal to capture the immense strength, resilience, courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian people, and to tell stories that evoke empathy, uplift and unite. The campaign reached hundreds of thousands of people, and included three separate art actions.

Nothing Will Tear Us Apart

Shortly after the start of the war, we reached out to our friends at Kyiv-based artist duo WE BAD with an invitation to collaborate on a mural project in Ukraine that sends a message of strength and hope. But they had a better idea.

Separated by the ongoing conflict, the artists – Lera Sxemka and Maxim Pavlyuk – wanted to continue working together, and created two interconnected murals – one in each country where they resided at the time.

This resulted in Nothing Will Tear Us Apart. Maxim created his mural on the walls of a bombed kindergarten in the Ozero village, in the Kyiv region, with the message painted on a surviving wall amidst all the destruction and rubble. Lera made her piece on a local government building in the center of Košice, Slovakia – where support services, including food and clothing, were offered to Ukrainian refugees since the first days of the war.

“To escape the missiles and bombs, we left Kyiv. And after two weeks, we made a very painful decision: Lera would go to a safe place abroad, to continue working, and Maxim would come back to Kyiv, to be helpful there. We broke apart, the same as thousands of families around the country. […] We’ve always done everything together – and although we are divided by a thousand kilometers, it was crucial to us to continue creating together,” say the artists. “This project is for everyone who is far away from their families, homes and loved ones. We are a brave nation and we know for sure that Ukraine will win, and these dark times.

A person standing in front of a building with graffiti.

A woman standing in front of a broken heart.

beingukraine.org

Defenders

When the war in Ukraine started, hundreds of thousands of civilians left their previous lives behind, and volunteered to protect their homeland.

Who are these people? Is such bravery superhuman, or the most intrinsic human trait there is?

We reached out to Ukraine’s Julia Kochetova, a phenomenal young photographer, and commissioned her to make a portrait series of defenders. In the months that followed, Julia focused on the people who stayed to fight, often becoming someone entirely new overnight. For DEFENDERS, аlong with her standard equipment, Julia used old soviet prism lenses, to visualize how Russia shattered the lives of Ukrainians – but couldn’t break the country’s spirit.

“The greatest gift is to have something to defend. What to fight for. What to stand for. War is crushing cities and blowing up bridges. War is killing people. But it can’t stop them. My people can’t be stopped by war,” says Julia.

A photo of a woman with long blonde hair.

Daria Kolomiets, 34
Before – DJ,
now – volunteer

Tanya Romaniuk, 30
Before – university mentor,
now – Red Cross volunteer

Marharyta Rivchachenko, 25
Before – journalist &
PR manager,
now – paramedic

Eugen Spirin, 34
Before – editor-in-chief of Babel.ua, now – volunteer at Bucha morgue

Pavlo Kaliuk, 35
Before – real estate manager, now – volunteer and community organizer

beingukraine.org

A Diary of War and Hope

“This is something about Ukrainians - they always smile.”

– Mila Teshaieva

On the third day of the war, we commissioned Mila Teshaieva, an Ukrainian photographer residing in Berlin, to create A Diary of War and Hope. It features 31 portraits of Ukrainians – civilians, refugees, defenders – all taken during the first few weeks of the war. Made as Mila traveled across the country, A Diary of War and Hope is a visual journal of both Ukraine’s struggle and perseverance. Each photograph is a glimpse into how the war has impacted the lives of millions, while also capturing people’s immense strength, courage, and resilience.

“None of us in Ukraine ever expected a war. It seemed that war existed only in history, in films, in books, and in memories. Then this day came, when bombs fell over Kyiv. It has changed us all – our values and our lives. [...] The portraits in this series were made during the first month of the war, when people were undergoing a complex transformation: from initial shock to the confidence that Ukraine and its people will stay strong, mightier than ever before”, says Mila.

Day 6 of the War / Lviv
‍In the small room of a local theater, Oksana, a teacher at Lviv University and a professional sportswoman, spends her days weaving masking nets for the army. I ask her: “Why is it important to maintain hope?”. She answers with a question: “If we lose hope, how can we support the people who fight for our freedom?”

Day 23 / Kyiv
‍As the air raid sirens begin to sound in Kyiv, Olga gets herself to the narrow entrance hall of her small flat, and stays there behind a thin wall. She places her hands together and prays. As she whispers the prayer, the siren wails on, and her whispers are mixed with silent tears. Olga is one of the many elderly people who have nowhere to go. For the last three weeks, she has not left her apartment. “Hope will give us power – it will give us kind thoughts, and faith that in the end good will overcome evil.”

Poster - A woman holding a dog in front of a train.

Day 10 / Kyiv
‍Alina, a 20-year-old student from Kyiv, is trying to get on the train to go west with her mother and her dog Zara. She breaks into tears:
“I don’t want to leave Kyiv, I don’t want to go anywhere. This is my home, this is my country,
I don’t understand why this is happening to us?” She looks ashamed of her tears. She smiles quietly and tells me about her hope that the war will end soon.

beingukraine.org

OUR WORK / PEACE & DEMOCRACY

The Anti-War
Poster Collection

To support the various ways of demonstrating solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and of opposing the war, we created a free Anti-War Poster Collection, available for anyone to download and use in a protest – online or offline.

A yellow background with the words apocalypse never.

Anti war poster with text - peace of cake.

A blue and yellow background with a text.

Anti war poster with text - Orwell is not impressed.

A yellow poster with text - be on the right side of history.

Copywriting: Fine Acts, M!xim Stoimenov, Teodor Genov

Fine Acts conceptualized and designed the posters, now downloaded thousands of times, using mainly fonts created by the Kyiv Type Foundry – who donate all their profits to help the situation on the ground in Ukraine, as well as by Vocal Type – a dedicated protest type foundry.

A poster for book cover apocalypse never - on the street

Poster - A yellow and blue cover of a book on the street.

We also partnered with our friends at ArtLink, to create an AR filter allowing anyone to take their protest online, by placing a poster of their choosing anywhere they like (for example, in front of their local Russian Embassy), taking a snapshot, and sharing it with the world.

Download the posters for free at TheGreats.co

thegreats.co

OUR WORK / PEACE & DEMOCRACY

DECKTATORS

In 2022, we finalized the gameplay and produced the first beta version for DECKTATORS – our terrible board game on defending civic space that puts players in the shoes of a dictator.
It makes people painfully aware of the tools
and tactics of oppression, and able to recognize autocrats for what they really are. The sweetest part? All tactics are 100% real and based on real-world actions by real-world dictators (or as they often call themselves – liberators).

During the year, we also developed the game’s web platform, secured a global advisory board, and prepared for the launch of a crowdfunding campaign in early 2023. We’ll also be publishing DECKTATORS under an open license, so that anyone can download, print & play it for free.

The game is informed by our collective trauma as people who grew up in a communist dictatorship, and our appreciation of humor as a critical tool for survival and resistance. It is developed in close consultation with a host of like-minded activists from oppressive regimes around the world.

The tactics and other elements of the game are based on our lived experiences as well as years-long research regarding the current and past state of human rights, civil society, media freedom and democracy around the world. We’ve been through books and memories alike, to give you a game that is as fun as it is furious.

Illustrations: Teo Georgiev

Poster with text - Nonprofits publish a damning report.

Decktators card - A yellow and blue drawing of a hand with a finger up.

An illustration of a board game with yellow and blue colors.

fineacts.co/decktators

WOMEN & LGBTI+ RIGHTS

OUR WORK / WOMEN & LGBTI+ RIGHTS

We gave sexual health a visual revamp

In 2022, we joined forces with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a global healthcare provider and a leading advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all, to embark on a visual reframing journey to challenge and disrupt how SRHR are communicated around the globe.

A poster that says - Take a stand against violence

An illustration of a group of people holding a sign that says knowledge protects us all.

A poster that says - Stand tall for abortion rights.

Poster - You can choose what kind of mother to be.

A poster with people that says lift each other up.

Illustrations: Anina Takeff, Marianna Tomaselli, Bruna Borges Alves, Olga Mrozek, David Espinosa for IPPF x Fine Acts

To this end, we first curated two interactive visual communications trainings for 50+ organizations, part of the IPPF global network (read more about this in Our Trainings section of our report).

To support the collective future we are striving for, we also created a new collection of hopeful visual artworks to serve as a tool for educators, activists, organizers and health providers fighting for SRHR around the world, helping everyone access the care they need to live a dignified life, based on respect. For it, we worked with a global pool of 30 talented artists, who produced 90+ illustrations on SRHR topics – from abortion care, contraceptive care & sex ed to gender-based violence, gender equality & LGBTI+ rights!

All works are published under a specific open license on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact visuals, so that IPPF’s network and other activists and nonprofits can use them in their future campaign work.

All illustrations can be used and adapted non-commercially to advocate for a better place for women, girls and trans people.

We then did extensive social media A/B testing in three countries to understand what kind of visuals work in different contexts, and produced a report analyzing the results – providing insights, recommendations and tips. Finally, we carried out a series of webinars and interactive workshops where we showed nonprofits how they can use the collection, talked about how to work with artists, explored why, how and when to use A/B testing, and consulted them on concrete visual communications materials for campaigns and advocacy efforts.

thegreats.co

OUR WORK / WOMEN & LGBTI+ RIGHTS

SPRINTS x Women’s Rights

We ran an edition of our original format SPRINTS, a creative bootcamp for visual artists, on the topic of women’s rights, engaging 12 prominent Bulgarian illustrators. The collection of artworks, supported by the Bulgarian Fund for Women, was directly used in marches and actions in Sofia on the occasion of the International Women’s Day (March 8), and further disseminated online.

This new pack of illustrations expanded the larger Women’s rights collection on TheGreats.co. The free open-licensed visuals there have been used thousands of times by now – in street protests, community meet-ups, social media campaigns, and more, all across the globe.

Poster with a girl and a text - Speak up

Poster for 8 march - A red background with a group of people standing in front of it.

Illustrations: Anina Takeff, Ilian Iliev, Nikoleta Nosovska for Fine Acts

thegreats.co

OUR WORK / WOMEN & LGBTI+ RIGHTS

We launched Vagina Matters in the UK

In 2022, we released Vagina Matters, our illustrated sex ed book, in the UK. It is created by us at Fine Acts, and published in the UK together with our awesome local partners at Daye, a gynae health innovator, and Brook, UK’s leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people. You can read the book online for free on vaginamatters.org, or grab a copy via Daye’s website.

A group of yellow and orange instagram posts on a yellow background.

Poster - A woman holding a book in front of a yellow background.

Poster - A group of people standing in front of a yellow background.

Illustrations: Borislava Madeit & Stalker since 1993, Photos: Radina Gancheva

We’ve also published Vagina Matters under an open license, empowering anyone anywhere to translate it into their language. The book aims to close the sex education gap by empowering educators and nonprofits around the world with engaging resources to promote sexual health awareness.

In over 250 pages, Vagina Matters (which started as the first illustrated sex-ed book for girls in Bulgaria) covers everything from periods, vaginal health and STIs, to body positivity, sex, LGBTI+ issues, as well as self-exploration and masturbation. It is a guide for young people to understand their bodies, and take charge of their sexual health.

Vagina Matters specifically focuses on the experiences of girls, as well as trans and non-binary people, aged 12 to 14, but can be read by anyone. Consulted by countless sexual health experts, it provides a great starting point to the core topics covered in comprehensive sex education.

vaginamatters.org

BELONGING

OUR WORK / BELONGING

We showed what belonging looks like

What does belonging look like in practice?
How can we visualize the act of bridging diverse communities? What would our world look like if we overcame the cleavages that often divide society?

The cover of a book with the words new day coming.

A poster with the words to go far go together.

Poster with two women and text - our bonds make us strong poster.

Poster with text - Build bridges not walls.

Illustrations: Mark Wang, Teo Georgiev, Jiaqi Zhou, Cecilia Castelli, Sakina Saïdi for OBI x Fine Acts

These are all questions that we asked ourselves in our collaboration with the Democracy & Belonging Forum, an initiative by the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

Together, we produced a new set of visuals – that anyone can use and adapt, free of charge – to accompany stories and narratives that focus on bridging and belonging. Our goal was to show that this is a possible future, in response to the current challenges that we face as humanity.

The Bridging and Belonging open-license collection features over 70 artworks. For it, we commissioned 40 artists from around the world to create works on our future vision, solutions and hope. We also organized a global open call for existing works on the topic – where we received over 220 submissions, out of which 30 artists were distinguished by our jury.

The collection is a tool for nonprofits, activists and citizens anywhere to call for a future where we all belong.

fineacts.co/belonging

OUR WORK / BELONGING

Three new editions
of WESEUM

WESEUM is our global series of pop-up museums curated by different vulnerable communities.

For our latest edition, we collaborated with 45 people from the three groups in Bulgaria that most often face hate speech – Roma, LGBTI people and asylum seekers/refugees.

It goes like this: we ask each person two questions, and they respond to each with an object. The museum is the collection of these objects, and the extraordinary stories behind them.

WESEUM (or, ‘the museum of us’) is designed to build understanding, promote a shared humanity, and break down stereotypes and barriers for groups that are oppressed or stigmatized.

It is a space that empowers communities to advance their narratives and rise above the stereotypization and misrepresentation – by exhibiting the everyday objects/ mementos they feel best represent their stories and selves.

ILIYANA

A green and white folklore dress on a blue background.

What makes you happy?
“Folk costume. As a child I used to dance folk dances in the community center. Those who danced were mainly Roma. Bulgarian folk dance and history for us Roma are not foreign, but close to our hearts.”

Poster - A stack of folded towels on a blue background.

What makes you sad?
“Nappy. I am a midwife and I know what happens to the Roma children and mothers after birth. They are separated into rooms with only Roma women, without mixing with the Bulgarian women. This fact saddens me, because children are the most prized gift in a society, however, since birth they are separated from one another.”

MARGARITA, 12 y.o, from Ukraine

What makes you happy?
“This toy. I was born and lived in the small town of Primorsk, Zaporozhye region. On the day the war started, I was on my way to school… With time the heating, Internet, and mobile communications were switched off. After a month of war, my mother decided that we should leave the occupied territory. We left with a single suitcase, with just the essentials. I had so many favorite things that I wanted to take with me. Mom only allowed me to take one small toy – a teddy bear.”

Poster - A pile of green powder on a blue background.

What makes you sad?
“Handful of earth. Mom collected earth from our yard, as a good omen and a memory of home, because we don’t know when we are going to return. But I think it will bring us luck and give us strength, and I believe that we will return to Ukraine, because I felt calm and happy there.”

Photos: Radina Gancheva

fineacts.co/weseum

OUR WORK / BELONGING

5 directors, 5 films, 0 words, 1 message

We worked with five exceptional Bulgarian filmmakers on a creative challenge. Our video omnibus Louder Than Words features five short films bound by a common theme, and a creative constraint. They all target stereotypes, but are hopeful; they all stand against hate speech – but are shot without words.

The five short films were created with the support of our friends at Handplayed Productions, and include Home (by Kevork Aslanyan), Heritage (by Rozaliya Dimitrova), Tasty (by Joro Peev), Journey (by Tsvetoslav Tsonev), and Love (by Slava Doytcheva). Each film focuses on a specific community – LGBTI, Roma, or refugees; and they all respond to the grim with hope and awe. The videos from the omnibus have been viewed close to 500 000 times online.

A poster for a documentary about a group of children.

A poster with a man in a suit and a woman in a suit.

A poster with a man with a beard a man and a woman

A poster for a movie with people sitting around a table.

fineacts.co/creative-comms-campaign

OUR WORK / WOMEN & LGBTI+ RIGHTS

Born Heroes

Born Heroes is a continuation of Born Ready –
a campaign focusing on the abolition of guardianship for persons with disabilities. Today, tens of thousands of people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities around the world are stripped of their legal capacity, and placed under guardianship. Born Heroes puts self-advocates in the ‘limelight’, where they belong.

An illustration of a woman playing ping pong.

The campaign originally launched in Bulgaria in 2020, in support of the efforts of the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-profit Law and the Bulgarian Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities to abolish guardianship in the country.

In 2022, we worked with prominent Bulgarian illustrator Anina Takeff on a collection of illustrations that further supported local efforts to abolish guardianship. Anina depicted the 27 self-advocates, who have been at the heart of the campaign from the very start, as heroes, and their dreams and skills – as their superpowers.

An illustration of a man holding a phone and a cup of coffee.

An illustration of a superhero holding a trophy.

An illustration of a woman in a chef's hat.

An illustration of a man with his arms outstretched.

Illustrations: Portraits of Marieta Petrova, Dimitar Atanasov, Ivan Edrev, Mihail Stoimenov, Temenuzhka Ivanova, Iliya Rangelov – by Anina Takeff

openness

Our Work / OPENNESS

The Greats

In 2022, we continued actively developing and promoting TheGreats.co, our unique global platform for open-licensed social impact visuals, free for activists and nonprofits from all across the world to use and adapt non-commercially.

Free illustrations from great artists to change the world.

The homepage of a website with different images of people.

According to behavioral, cognitive and neuroscience insights, opinions change NOT through more information and dry facts – but by empathetic and compelling experiences, visual communications and effective storytelling. That’s where visuals come in: our brains are hardwired for visual content – powerful imagery can help us get attention, facilitate the retention of information, and provoke an emotional response and action.

TheGreats.co offers a solution to a key problem for many NGOs, grassroots groups, and activists, as they often lack the capacity and resources to create compelling visual materials that make their essential work or campaigns visible.

Our platform is without analogue – as all illustrations are published under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), allowing free use AND adaptation for non-commercial purposes. For all works, we publish the work files, in addition to the print files, so that nonprofits, grassroots organizations, social movements and activists globally can use and adapt them according to their needs – like change or translate the copy, add new text (or delete it), use different colors, or anything really to make works effective in their own context.

Currently, the platform features 1340+ free artworks (and counting) by close to 1000 global artists, on topics ranging from women’s rights, LGBTI+ rights, racial justice, freedom of expression, and many more. Most of the content on The Greats is commissioned by us at Fine Acts, through our creative challenges. On top of that, artists are opening up their existing works to support the efforts of activists worldwide.

The Greats has attracted amazing support and interest, with hundreds of organizations – large and small – using and adapting the illustrations for their work. There are over 2200 activists and nonprofits registered on the platform. The works on The Greats have been viewed a total of 1 275 000+ times, many of which have been saved for direct use. We have also registered 17 000 downloads of full bundles with work files allowing adaptation.

thegreats.co

Our Work / OPENNESS

The Better Sharing Collection

When we share, everyone wins. This is the motto of Creative Commons (CC) — an international nonprofit fostering the sharing of knowledge and culture in the public interest. In 2022, CC celebrated 20 years since their licenses were first published – which has resulted in freeing over 2 billion pieces of content from restrictive standard “all rights reserved” copyright licenses.

To mark the anniversary, and celebrate open sharing, we teamed up with CC to create the Better Sharing open-license collection of illustrations.

For the collection, we first reached out to 12 prominent global open advocates with the question: “What’s your best tip for a brighter future (as it relates to open sharing)?” Then, we selected 12 artists, who have worked openly many times in the past, to produce a series of open-license visual works inspired by the theme and the advocates’ responses.

All works are published on TheGreats.co – our unique global platform for free social impact visuals – under an open license, to be enjoyed, used and adapted, by anyone.

Illustration with people and text - The more we share, the more we have.

Poster with people and text - Open palms, not clutching fists.

Illustration with people and text - Sharing brighteners the future.

An illustration of a woman holding a heart with the words gives and loses is the hand.

Illustrations: Pietro Soldi x Cory Doctorow, Burcu Köleli x Maria Popova, Teo Georgiev x Biyanto Rebin, Sakina Saïdi x Liz Lenjo

thegreats.co

Fine Acts

Our Trainings

Over the last years, the movement for human, social, economic and environmental rights has come under threat more and more. To turn the tide, it is not enough to have facts and reason on our side – we need compelling, empathetic experiences. Thus, it has become imperative that we get better at sharing our messages to raise awareness, trigger action, and foster greater support for our campaigns.

To this end, we at Fine Acts organize various types of creative campaigning and communications trainings and workshops:

We equip activists and nonprofits around the world with the science of what makes people care and the knowledge of how to use art for social change. We present civil society actors with evidence from cognitive, behavioral and neuroscience on what makes people engage emotionally with an issue, and help them apply these science-based insights to their campaigns and comms.
Our creative campaigning trainings, which can range from one off introductory workshops to expanded, multi-day sessions, introduce participants to the principles of creative campaign design and implementation, and how to harness the power of art, walking them through various tactics and tools such as protests & urban actions, use of photography, digital campaigns, symbols/iconography, protest posters and so much more.
As certified trainers, we also offer sessions on narrative change, reframing, and hope-based communications, a pragmatic approach to winning support for policies and advocacy positions by showing how they will work. For this interactive, activity-based training, we work with organizations to analyze their way of communicating through a hope-based lens. Participants explore hope as a strategy and its 5 key principles.
In addition, we also organize targeted sessions on visual reframing, which focus on how we can communicate more effectively through visuals, how to identify when our messages and visuals are not aligned, and how to take action.

In 2022, we organized a series of trainings for a number of prominent organizations, including:

A multi-day visual communications training for the International Planned Parenthood Federation and 50+ women’s rights organizations from all around the world that are part of their network.

A multi-day creative campaigning & hope-based comms training for the European Liberal Forum, which included 20+ organizations from Eastern Europe.

A couple of creative advocacy workshops for the Leaders Europe & Scholars Programs of the Obama Foundation, which engaged over 60 civil society champions from all around the world.

In addition, The Creative Playbook, our platform for educational resources and materials for activists, features guidelines for creative campaigning, different types of online and offline tactics, and successful examples of creative campaigns that take an interdisciplinary approach. It also includes a free-to-download Guidebook for Creative Activism.

Whant to find out more about our trainings? Get in touch with us at hello@fineacts.co and we’ll give you the rundown.

Publicity Highlights

We are proud to have been featured in a range of prominent outlets:

Screenshot of video player from ted with Yana

TED-Ed
February 2022

NPR, TED Radio Hour
February 2022

President Obama keynote address
at Stanford University
April 2022

A news article about artists installing their work to raise awareness about climate change.

Artnet
November 2022

A poster with the words forbes and olympia.

Forbes
November 2022

A screenshot of a post from Washington Post

Washington Post
November 2022

Fine Acts

Selected Testimonials

Hust Wilson, art director & designer

“ It’s always been amazing to work with Fine Acts and their amazing team on multiple occasions to create art for the right reasons. With Fine Acts opening a door for positive change, we can make a better world and learn from other countries.

Kevin Adams, lettering artist & typeface designer

“ I am honored to have now worked with Fine Acts for three years. And over that period, three things remain the same – the initiatives and their work continue to be timely, necessary, and accessible. Fine Acts amplifies a range of important messages through art with amazing agency and urgency.

Rozalina Burkova, visual artist, illustrator & animation director

“ Fine Acts have been the personification of the perfect creative partner & client for me. The team is a rare combination of guiding yet trusting, passionate for innovation, excitement and out of the box ideas, yet firmly rooted in their organisation’s base principles of creating quality work with positive impact above all.

Emily Cushman, Director of Education Programs and Policy, Global Programs, the Obama Foundation

“Partnering with the Fine Acts team on a workshop focused on driving change through arts and creativity was a seamless and deeply rewarding experience for our program participants. Pavel and Yana brought research-based ideas and resources on the power of hope, play, and joy to harness new and creative communications approaches in order to help our leaders from across sectors leverage the power of the arts in their own social change initiatives. Fine Acts are true leaders in this space and the thoughtfulness, passion, and expertise they bring to their work cannot be understated.

Ony Anukem, Communications & Campaigns Manager, Creative Commons

“ Teaming up with Fine Acts on our #BetterSharing collection to celebrate CreativeCommons’ 20th anniversary was a highlight of 2022 for me. I was inspired by Yana and Pavel’s commitment and innovative approach to creating positive social change through openness and creativity, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such amazing individuals.

Sara Grossman, Program Director, Democracy & Belonging Forum, Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley

“ The team at Fine Acts is an absolute delight to work with. They guided us through a multi-month-long process of collaboration, from conceptualization and project design to outreach and comms strategy. We are grateful to have had the chance to work with them and recommend them to anyone who wants to creatively integrate arts and culture in justice and campaign efforts.

Lera Sxemka, artist, WE BAD

“ The proposal to make a project came in an extremely tough period, and luckily, with a huge support of the Fine Acts team, became a support and symbol of resistance and hope. For us and for many Ukrainians for whom it was so important to be heard. In the moment when your world is falling apart, to support people by doing what you love the most – is the best gift. We are very thankful to Fine Acts for the opportunity to make this project happen.

Thomas Coombes, Founder, Hope-based comms

“ Fine Acts provide vital creative energy for the social change movement. They unapologetically combine art, hope and human rights. Their unique approach helps activists address social and political issues from new angles and express their ideas and values in a more compelling way, which is crucial if we are to inspire new people to join our movements.

New Visual Identity

If we had a dime for each time someone called us Fine Arts, we’d have enough money to buy a massive pack of tissues for when we weep: “But it’s acts, why are you saying arts...”.

Fine Acts rebranding - showing the before and after of the logotype.

Fine Acts, our beloved real name – and an obvious (or so we thought!) pun that, much like our work, marries the worlds of fine art and activism – needed a new visual identity.

One that:

makes the brand easy to understand and remember;
works great in small sizes and digital screens;
stands out distinctively next to other contemporary logos.

We wanted to avoid too much sophistication or abstraction, or any literal connection to the arts (paint brushes, sprays, etc.) and the activism (fists, megaphones, etc.) world. What we were after, was something bold, creative and fun, stemming from our main values of hope, play and openness. So, last year we collaborated with our friends at Studio PUNKT (punkt.bg) to develop our new visual identity.

Isn’t it fine?

The Numbers

Fine acts

297

Art Pieces Produced

20

Projects

15

Exhibitions & Creative Actions in 6 countries

7000000+

engagement

the greats

1340+

ARTWORKS
(by almost 1000 artists)

1300000+

ARTWORK VIEWS

17000+

ARTWORK DOWNLOADS

2250+

ORGANIZATIONS / ACTIVISTS

Finances

484 793€

budget 2022

Fine acts foundation:

316 984€

total income

278 356€

total expenditure

60.07%

Grants

34.61%

reserves*

0.26%

donations

5.06%

Services

FINE ACTS CONSULTING**:

70 745€

total income

64 238€

total expenditure

* Reserves are formed by grant funds for future periods, and profit from services from past periods
** Fine Acts Consulting is our consulting and training arm, 100% owned by Fine Acts Foundation

The Fine Acts Universe

TEAM & BOARDS

Fine Acts team

Yana Buhrer Tavanier, Executive Director
Ana Alexieva, Programs Director
Svetla Baeva, Campaigns Director
Petar Trifonov, Creative Producer
Sofia Hussein, Copywriter & Social Media Manager
Boyana Stoilova, Social Media Strategist
Elena Dimitrova, Accountant
‍Pavel Kounchev, Special Projects Advisor

Board of Trustees

Pavel Kounchev, co-founder, Chair of the Board
Julie Freeman, co-founder, Member of the Board
Shoham Arad, TED Fellows Director, Member of the Board
Maria Popova, founder The Marginalian, Member of the Board
Yana Buhrer Tavanier, co-founder, Executive Director

Advisory Board

Colleen Keegan
Esra’a Al Shafei
Rebecca Lichtenfeld
Safwat Saleem
Lars Jannick Johansen
Benedetta Berti
Alexander McLean
Gayle Karen Young
Arthur Steiner

Inaugural artist collective

Alicia Eggert, Safwat Saleem, Jon Lowenstein, Bahia Shehab, Laura Boushnak, Zena el Khalil, Christine Sun Kim, Candy Chang, Jorge Mañes Rubio, Allison Killing, Andrew Nemr, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Constance Hockaday, Kiana Hayeri, Sahra Sandman, Joey Foster Ellis, Saeed Taji Farouky, Lee Mokobe, Uldus Bakhtiozina, Jost Franko, Daniela Candillari, Adital Ela, Eman Mohammed, Anita Doron, Sey Min, Sharmistha Ray, Nate Mook, Julie Freeman

Inaugural activist collective

Will Potter, Benedetta Berti, Esra’a Al Shafei, Alexander McLean, Nassim Assefi, Zena el Khalil, Aziz Abu Sarah, Andrew Bastawrous

DONORS & PARTNERS

Core donors

All our work happens because of the generous institutional support of Open Society Foundations and Sigrid Rausing Trust

Project donors

Ford Foundation, Active Citizens Fund, Bulgarian Fund for Women, Sofia Municipality Culture Program

Strategic partners & supporters

TED Foundation, TED Countdown, TED Fellows, The Obama Foundation, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Democracy & Belonging Forum/Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, Creative Commons Foundation, hope-based comms, OAK Foundation, Bulgarian Centеr for Not-for-profit Law, Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association, SiteGround, Into Action

Project partners

Global Witness, Digital Art Factory, Daye, Brook, Handplayed Productions, Loveguide.bg, DOZA Gallery, Caritas Sofia, Bilitis Foundation, Youth LGBT Organization Deystvie, Foundation for Community Development and Cooperation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, European Liberal Forum

Our Patrons

Shoham Arad, Renee Freedman, Peio Popov, Yordan Zhechev, Mike Chernev, Garo Marukyan, Amanda, Alex DabiZevi, Angel Ivanov, Vladimir Petkov, Petar Bodurov

Also, a huge thank you to all our individual donors through Paypal.

ARTISTS & COLLABORATORS

Friends

Studio PUNKT, Oblik Studio, Fiction Design, Resonator Co-innovation hub Sofia, MediaCom Bulgaria, Nikolay Petrov-GLOW, Iva Mechkunova, Raya Raeva, Peio Popov, Martina Koleva, Diana Trifonova, Suzi Pomerantz, Marianne Craig

Artists, whom we commissioned in 2022

WeBad (Valeria Liashenko & Maxim Pavlyuk), Julia Kochetova, Mila Teshaieva, Bahia Shehab, Laura Boushnak, Moez Achour, Valeria Araya, Anja Slibar, Anina Takeff, Pepe Serra, Vanessa Mundle (minttu), Luisa Brando, Preeti Singh, Pati Matsushita, David Espinosa, Cecilia Castelli, Teo Georgiev, Nastya Varlamova, Fátima Bravo, Aysha Tengiz, Janice Chang, Kim Nguyen, Tanya Korniichuk, Jiaqi Zhou, Camila Leão, Olga Mrozek, Elise Vandeplancke, Alex Tait, Gerard Cornella-Geco, Lily Kong, Sakina Saïdi, Cachete Jack, Rozalina Burkova, Burcu Köleli, Kimberlie Wong, Gustaf Ö Hjalmars, Inga Israel, SoHyun Park, Jade, Ed Dingli, Kevin Adams, Jon Hanlan, Alicia Robinson, Asis Percales, Veta Yatsenko, Tanya Shyika, Mark Wang, Sancho, Pavel Fuksa, DARN Studio, Shirien Creates, Jacopo Oliveri-Fatomale, Aleksandra Georgieva, Atanas Giew, Daniela Todorova (Shadowschaser), Dessy Baeva, Zhana Mitkova, Iva Dimitrova, Izabela Markova, Ilian Iliev, Momchil Zakhariev, Nikoleta Nosovska, Yasen Zgurovski, Jordan Schiffer, Nickson Jeremia, Osheen Siva, Fartboil, CarolynTaylor, Jal Reed, Maria Picassó i Piquer, Phathu Nembilwi, Kissi Ussuki, Alejandro Ortiz,

Ángela Chamorro Acosta, Bruna Borges Alves, Federico Sáez, Yessi Nur Mulianawati, Ipsita Divedi, Fugitiva, Marianna Tomaselli, Pietro Soldi, Hust Wilson, Slava Doycheva, Rozalia Dimitrova, Kevork Aslanyan, Joro Peev-Jawpains, Tsvetoslav Tsonev

Artists featured in our open calls

Gorka Gil, Kayan Cheung-Miaw, Hatiye Garip, Rima Lyma, Zofia Chamienia, Gabriela Dominguín, Jorge Losoya, Elsa Martino, Edinah, Mora Vieytes, Jessica Whitney Crowe, Victoria Valdez, Vicky Hughes, Ina Gouveia, Weronika Lis, Andreas Pitsillides, Ana Lopes, In-House International, Ieva Ragauskaite, Tra Nhu, Mitali Sampat, Kokila B, BarabarDesign, Valeria Araya, Ildiko Nova, Preeti Singh, VeronikaBelcheva, Aleksandra Georgieva, Ivan Kashlakov, Katrin Kochorapova

Other awesome people we worked with in 2022

Cory Doktorow, Catherine Stihler, Liz Lenjo, David Moinina Sengeh, Cecilia Oliveira, Tyler Green, Maria Popova, Molly Van Houweling, Biyanto Rebin, Kyle Smith, Ebenezar Wikina, Medhavi Gandhi, Yuli Velázquez, Farwiza Farhan, Caroline Cannon, Disha Ravi, Mohammed Rezwan, Evelyn Acham, Ernestine Leikeki Sevidzem, Hong Hoang, Zahra Biabani, Ketty Marinova, Radina Gancheva, Yana Lozeva, Borislava MadeIt, Maksim Stoimenov, Teodor Genov-Pastedko, Violeta Keremidchieva, Rumyana Ivanova, Meglena Antonova, Bogomila Traykova, Rada Boneva, Yana Dobrevska

THANK
YOU!

Thank you for your friendship, partnership, trust and support.

Here’s to never settling for perfect.

Chapter illustrations in this annual report are adapted from the original open-licensed works by: Safwat Saleem, Cachete Jack, Jacques Kleynhans, Studio Punkt, Aleksandra Georgieva, Pavel Fuksa. Thank you, you rock! Find all works on TheGreats.co.

FineActs Annual Report 2022

Hi! We areFine Acts.

Mission

Our Work

Origami Instructions

Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene

HELL

HEAVEN

Pyramids of Garbage return to Egypt

Incoming – more works on climate!

The Advantages of Facing Extinction

Team Earth

Artists For Climate

Being Ukraine

Nothing Will Tear Us Apart

Defenders

A Diary of War and Hope

The Anti-War Poster Collection

DECKTATORS

We gave sexual health a visual revamp

SPRINTS x Women’s Rights

We launched Vagina Matters in the UK

We showed what belonging looks like

Three new editions of WESEUM

5 directors, 5 films, 0 words, 1 message

Born Heroes

The Greats

The Better Sharing Collection

Our Trainings

Publicity Highlights

Selected Testimonials

Hust Wilson, art director & designer

Kevin Adams, lettering artist & typeface designer

Rozalina Burkova, visual artist, illustrator & animation director

Emily Cushman, Director of Education Programs and Policy, Global Programs, the Obama Foundation

Ony Anukem, Communications & Campaigns Manager, Creative Commons

Sara Grossman, Program Director, Democracy & Belonging Forum, Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley

Lera Sxemka, artist, WE BAD

Thomas Coombes, Founder, Hope-based comms

New Visual Identity

If we had a dime for each time someone called us Fine Arts, we’d have enough money to buy a massive pack of tissues for when we weep: “But it’s acts, why are you saying arts...”.

Isn’t it fine?

The Numbers

Fine acts

297

Art Pieces Produced

20

Projects

15

Exhibitions & Creative Actions in 6 countries

7000000+

engagement

the greats

1340+

ARTWORKS(by almost 1000 artists)

1300000+

ARTWORK VIEWS

17000+

ARTWORK DOWNLOADS

2250+

ORGANIZATIONS / ACTIVISTS

Finances

484 793€

budget 2022

Fine acts foundation:

316 984€

total income

278 356€

total expenditure

60.07%

Grants

34.61%

reserves*

0.26%

donations

5.06%

Services

FINE ACTS CONSULTING**:

70 745€

total income

Hi! We are
Fine Acts.

The Anti-War
Poster Collection

Three new editions
of WESEUM

ARTWORKS
(by almost 1000 artists)

THANK
YOU!