Our Vision
A world where
collaborative art-making
is a globally implemented tool to strengthen and transform communities.
According to UNHCR, “over 110 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes— 40% of whom are children— more than at any time in documented history. The traumas of conflict and displacement create barriers to successful transitions to adulthood.
In addition, in the aftermath of Covid lockdowns and school closures, children and youth across the world are experiencing mental health challenges and severe social isolation, with reported higher rates of antisocial behavior, depression and violence.
Many vulnerable communities lack creative, interactive programming that promotes community building, strengthens social-emotional development and provides platforms for young people to shape their own narratives and express themselves positively. This is where Artolution steps in.
The Challenges:
Artolution addresses these challenges by training and hiring teams of local teaching artists, who facilitate dynamic educational arts programming in crisis-affected communities.
We provide creative platforms for our youth participants to tell their own stories, build positive relationships and learn skills for self-expression and collaborative art-making.
Through the arts, the communities we serve strengthen self-esteem and self-confidence, promote peaceful co-existence and reimagine a hopeful future.
Our Solution:
Participants at a worshop in Cali, Colombia
A Rohingya particant at the Balukhali camp in Banglaesh during one of our sculpture programs.
Our Pillars
Mental Health
Through collaborative art-making practices and workshops that focus on relationship building, Artolution programming strengthens the psychosocial wellbeing of participants. We focus on level 2 of the interventions pyramid: Strengthening Community and Family Support. Our activities are designed to increase self-esteem, self-confidence, positive relationships within a community, and a re-envisioning of one’s identity and self concept.
Social Inclusion
Artolution programs promote inter-group cooperation where tensions exist between ethnicities, religions, nationalities or other social groups, based on Intergroup Contact Theory. Our activities provide a public platform for marginalized communities to shape their own narratives and envision the future they aspire to, thereby countering stigma and demonstrating their humanity to the wider society.
Artolution trains, certifies and provides paid work for teaching artists from vulnerable communities, who facilitate our programs. In addition, select projects provide community participants a variety of skills to become financially independent and provide for their families. Workshops include tech-based skills (design programs, Augmented Reality) and crafting (ceramics, artisanal chocolate-making, etc) and teach entrepreneurship and how to market one’s products.
Livelihoods
Core Values
Self-empowerment
We believe that everyone has the potential to be a leader and contribute to their communities in meaningful ways.
Transformation
We believe in the transformative power of art to generate change, resilience and growth within each individual and community.
Respect
We believe that every person and
every community deserves to have
a platform from which to share their voice and express their humanity to the wider world.
Artolution started a decade ago with two nomadic artists, circling the globe to promote positive social change through individual art projects in conflict-affected communities, such as Syrian refugee camps, favelas in Brazil and prisons in the US. Joel Bergner and Max Frieder, both following their own paths as artists, discovered the power of collaborative arts and mural painting to bring people together, build positive relationships and spark hope, even in the most desperate conditions.
However, they recognized that true, lasting impact could only be made by the local communities themselves. Along their journey, they partnered with inspirational local artists who were heroes for the children and families in their neighborhoods, but lacked the support– both financial and institutional– to reach their full potential as changemakers.
With this in mind, Max and Joel, backed by a dedicated Board of Directors and Advisors, launched Artolution in 2016, with the aim of connecting global resources and expertise to these artists in marginalized communities globally, providing them the infrastructure and funding necessary to lead their own community-based art programs for children, youth and families.
Artolution has now trained and certified over 120 community artists globally, served over 10,000 participants in over 35 countries, and set up year-round programs in Uganda, Bangladesh, Jordan, Colombia and the United States, with more in the works. We serve refugees and displaced communities, including Syrians, the Rohingya, South Sudanese, Congolese, Venezuelans and Central Americans, as well as young people facing social exclusion and individuals affected by the criminal justice system. We established our operational headquarters in New York City and an office in Washington, DC in order to support each of these programs and share our stories with the world.
Our Story
Max Frieder with participants at a project in Queens, NY.
Joel Bergner in front of his mural in the South Bronx, NYC.
Our Mission
To create inclusive and transformative experiences where crisis-affected communities globally cultivate their own strengths and resilience through collaborative art-making.
Video Spotlight
My Ground Water Story
World Water Day 2022: Collecting Water in the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement
Our team living in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement took on the challenge of shooting a 60-second video about accessing groundwater in their zone.
In this video, we are joining the United Nations on World Water Day, 2022, to make the invisible visible. Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement is a refugee camp in Northwestern Uganda with over 270,000 South Sudanese refugees fleeing the ongoing civil war as of early 2017.
Video created by Richard Yuma Hakim / Music by Richard Yuma Hakim
Featuring Vivian Khemisa
Both Artolution Teaching Artists and South Sudanese Refugees living in the Refugee Settlement
