Open Call for Artists and Creators


Join ART/ICLE: Journalism Reimagined Through Art by August 3


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Fine Acts, a global creative studio for social impact, is looking for artists based in Guatemala to become part of the first edition of ART/ICLE – a new collaborative format that brings together journalism and artistic practice to tell urgent stories in ways that inform, move, and inspire action.

For this pilot, we are focusing on the stories of environmental defenders in Guatemala – people protecting land, water, forests, and Indigenous territories whose work often comes at enormous personal risk. Despite the urgency of these stories, many remain unseen.

We believe art can help change that.

Selected artists will collaborate closely with a journalist over a two-month co-creation process, following an experimental and horizontal methodology. Rooted in the journalist's ongoing reporting and lived engagement, you will develop an original artistic response that extends the story beyond traditional media and into public space, collective imagination, and lived experience. 

4 artists will be selected in 2026. Selected artists will each receive 6,300 USD, covering artist fee, production and documentation for their work. 

We seek applications from artists working across disciplines, including:

  • Public art

  • Installation (visual or sound)

  • Video

  • Animation

  • Performance

  • Illustration

  • Street art

  • Digital and interactive media

  • Interdisciplinary practices

We are looking for artists who are interested in translating evidence into experience, facts into feeling, and reporting into new forms of public engagement that move beyond gallery walls and into the shared spaces where people gather, and connect.

Whether your practice unfolds on a wall, on a screen, in the street, or within a community, we seek to support bold, thoughtful, and experimental approaches that can amplify stories often pushed to the margins.

At this stage, we are interested in exploring artist portfolios and very rough concepts about how you would approach the potential artwork. Once selected, artists will work in dialogue with the journalist, and will be supported by the Fine Acts team, to develop and implement their final concept.

If you believe art can deepen public understanding, create empathy, and make urgent stories impossible to ignore, we invite you to apply.

Together, we can imagine new ways for journalism to be seen, felt, and remembered.

To apply, simply fill the form below.

TIMELINE

Applications open: July 13, 2026
Applications close: Aug 3, 2026
Selected artists notified: by September 1, 2026
Collaboration/conceptualization: September–November 2026
Production & launch of works: December 2026–March 2027

  • Environmental and land defenders in Guatemala face some of the highest levels of risk in the world. According to Global Witness (2025), 146 environmental defenders were killed or forcibly disappeared globally in 2024, many of them targeted for opposing extractive industries such as mining, logging, and agroindustry.

    Within this global crisis, Guatemala stands out for its alarming figures: killings increased from four cases in 2023 to 20 in 2024, making it the country with the highest number of killings per capita that year. This surge occurred in a context marked by longstanding land inequality, weak protections for Indigenous rights, and persistent corruption networks.

    Despite the election of President Bernardo Arévalo and a more inclusive political agenda, attacks intensified, illustrating how political shifts that challenge entrenched elites can provoke violent backlash. Environmental defense remains a high-risk activity, particularly for Indigenous and campesino communities, which are disproportionately affected and continue to face criminalization, threats, forced evictions, and violence.

    These conflicts are often linked to extractive projects implemented without prior consultation, threatening water sources, ecosystems, and community livelihoods. The presence of organized crime in key regions, combined with an ineffective justice system, reinforces a cycle of violence and impunity. In this context, defending land and the environment becomes not only a struggle for rights but also a profoundly dangerous act.

    Meanwhile, the situation of journalists in Guatemala reflects the country's democratic crisis. In recent years, journalists have faced increasing criminalization, judicial persecution, financial pressure, threats, harassment, surveillance, and forced exile as part of broader efforts to silence independent media.

    According to a Civitas and Article 19 report, these attacks are not only limited to intimidation but also include lethal violence: at least 21 assassinations and 28 homicides of journalists were documented between 2011 and 2020. More recent UNESCO data shows that impunity remains a defining feature of crimes against journalists, with the majority of  killings worldwide going unpunished, a trend that is also reflected in Guatemala. 

    While these risks affect journalists across the country, community and Indigenous journalists working in rural areas face even greater dangers due to their reporting on issues such as land rights, environmental conflicts, corruption, and human rights abuses. Despite legal protections for freedom of expression, they continue to experience intimidation, censorship, and violence.

    Even under these conditions, Guatemalan journalists have continued their work with resilience, developing new forms of collaboration and investigative reporting. Although the election of President Arévalo raised hopes for change, attacks on the press persist, limiting both journalists' safety and the public's access to information.

 

ART/ICLE – Artist Application

 

Thank you for your interest in ART/ICLE.

Please complete the application below. We are looking to learn about your artistic practice, what draws you to this collaboration, and how you approach transforming stories into artistic experiences.

 
 
 
 

ABOUT US

 

Fine Acts is a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact. We work at the intersections of advocacy, art, tech, and science, and we practice playtivism – creating multidisciplinary spaces for play and experimentation in activism.