We are recognized in FC’s World Changing Ideas Awards - again!

We are thrilled to announce that our open platform for free socially engaged art has been recognized in Fast Company's 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards.

TheGreats.co (previously known as TheAmmo.org) has been selected as an honorable mention in the Creativity category of the awards. We've been chosen from a pool of over 3000 global entries.

Illustration: Aleksandra Georgieva (Sa6ettu) for Fine Acts

Until now, The Greats has been functioning in its early beta stage, and we are launching a fully functioning platform next month that will feature hundreds of free artworks (on topics such as women's rights, LGBT rights, freedom of expression & more). Our platform is unique as it allows not just open use, but also free noncommercial adaptation by nonprofits and activists. Stay tuned for more, by signing up for our newsletter!

This is the third time that Fine Acts has been recognized in the World Changing Ideas Awards - we were selected as Finalists in 2017 with The Future (on armed conflict, with Alicia Eggert and Safwat Saleem), and in 2019 with Project Light (on avoidable blindness, with Peek Vision).

About the awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. 

We launch our second SPRINTS on LGBTQ+ issues

Photo: Mihail Novakov

We ended May with a bang with our second edition of SPRINTS, a weekend-long creative bootcamp exploring the intersection of human rights and visual arts. It’s part of our Fine Acts Laboratories where we play and experiment with how we can improve our human rights talk. 

SPRINTS 2.0 focused on LGBT+ rights, specifically exploring issues around homophobia and coming out (see exhibition gallery). We will hold more thematic events by the end of 2019 on issues covering freedom of speech and more.

Photo: Yana Lozeva

Photo: Mihail Novakov

Powerful visual content not only drives coverage but also fosters empathy and pushes engagement. But NGOs and activists often lack the capacity and resources to make their work or campaigns visible. SPRINTS supports campaigners across the world with compelling visual works that can be used and adapted.

In SPRINTS, visual artists have just 48 hours to produce artworks that range from posters and postcards to GIFs and videos. The works are then presented at a pop-up exhibition and made available online on The Ammo, our free vault with carefully curated socially engaged visual content, open to anyone to use or adapt non commercially.

Participants in SPRINTS 2.0:

Radina Gancheva, Vesselina Nikolaeva – photographers; Sevda Semer – visual artist; Aglika Spassova, Yasen Zgurovski, Teo Georgiev, Teodor Genov – illustrators; Ilian Iliev, Viktoria Nesheva – graphic designers; Elizaveta Angelova  – typographer; Zhelez Atanasov and Vladi Gerasimov – videomakers.

The second edition of Fine Acts Sprints would not be possible without our partners Friedrich Naumann Foundation Southeast Europe and the general support of Open Society Foundations. The event was also supported by GLAS Foundation, Cosmos Coworking Camp, TimeHeroes, Trastena Wines, Finlandia Vodka, Ailyak Beer.

Fakery is live!

Our creative campaign Fakery (The Fake News Bakery) is live and running! It tackles the issue of fake news and disinformation and promotes media literacy through a novel methodology: deliciously looking but horribly tasting cupcakes! We launched Fakery on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.

A core element of the campaign is a video of a social experiment, based on sensational fake news, which we created and spread in media. On the campaign's website, you can find useful tools and resources on how to detect fake news, but also tips on how to talk about the problem with friends and relatives, who might be prone to consuming disinformation.

Fakery has attracted substantial interest – the video has been viewed over 84,000 on social media so far, and the campaign has been covered by leading media outlets.

We are so proud to have Handplayed Productions and the Association of European Journalists as key partners in this project!

Bon appetit!