In world grappling with rising authoritarianism, inequality, and environmental crises, artists stand as catalysts for social change. The Soros Arts Fellowship, launched by the Open Society Foundations in 2018, supports innovative mid-career artists and cultural producers advancing social change around the world. The fellowship provides artists with the resources to develop a large-scale project on their own terms, and in their own local contexts.
This report showcases the impact of the fellowship on individual artists, their creative practices, and the communities they engage with. Through socially engaged art—characterized by collaboration, community engagement, and issue-focused narratives—these artists worked with communities to challenge dominant narratives and incite change. This report underscores the urgent need to invest in artists as agents of change and highlights the important role of art in envisioning and building more equitable and just societies.
Watch the video featuring Soros Arts Fellows speaking on the power of socially engaged art.
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Soros Arts Fellowship Impact Report: 2018–2022 (5.1 Mb pdf file)
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Art for Healing In Depth
Land, Memory, and the Power of Art
![This still from Cannupa Hanska Luger's "Future Ancestral Technologies - We Live" (2021) illustrates the artist’s blending of Indigenous futurism, place, storytelling and documentation of living practice as two figures pledge accountability to the land and waters through their physical presence. Like many projects from this year’s art fellows, the work incorporates knowledge and practice from native communities that live in harmony with nature to imagine how the whole world can improve our relationship with the Earth. Photo credit: © Cannupa Hanska Luger Two figures stand on a bridge dressed in hand-made Indigenous regalia.](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/159b6b06-17fa-4b0f-9528-715a3f62f17d/20231102-cannupa-hanska-luger-futureancestraltechnologies-welive-still1-3000.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C125%2C3000%2C1875)
How can communities use art to imagine a better tomorrow that protects and celebrates nature—and the people that live within it? The 2023 Soros Arts Fellows will pursue projects that reckon with the role of socially engaged art in a time of crisis.
Art and Activism
Reimagining January 6th
![The 2023 cover and excerpts from Issue #1 of the four-issue series, 1/6, written by Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan and illustrated by Will Rosado. Photo credit: Images courtesy of One Six Comics Pages from a graphic novel.](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/b096beed-b23a-410b-8987-44659cb9abf3/2023-09-social-share-alan-jenkins-2.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=141%2C0%2C1442%2C900)
The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol left him in a cold sweat. Creating a comic book seemed like one way to reach people not obsessively following the news and spark activism to help defend a multicultural democracy.
Art During Wartime
“Warriors of Light”
![Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova working at their art studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 2022. Photo credit: © Mykola Kondrashev Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova working in an art studio.](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/6260a499-db1c-4d36-8f03-701e2f4d2878/20230328-etchingroom1-kristina-anna-studio-9-1500.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C31%2C1500%2C938)
The world knew all too little about the art and culture of Ukraine prior to Russia’s all-out invasion. The war has changed that—and demonstrated the power of art as a tool of resistance.