International Human Rights Art Festival

The IHRAF uses all creative media to effect positive social change in the world. We open space for conversation between creative change makers (art-activists) and decision makers in government and politics. New and positive relationships between those inhabiting power structures and those who want to use creatiity to effect positive social change emerge. Our founding values of celebrating diversity, engagement with all members of society, sincerity and vulnerability of presentation drive novel programming, where artists tell their stories through art, from the heart, entering the heart of the audience. We fill the void of connectivity — the yearning for all members of society to relate to each other on the human level — by creating a space for genuine conversation around society’s most pressing issues, from female genital mutilation in Kenya to indigenous rights in Canada to police brutality in Nigeria to women’s rights in Kuwait etc. We feature not only performers, writers, videos etc., but also United States Senators and Congresspersons, US Human Rights Commissioners and government workers, and international non-art activists. We unify this disparate collective into a community, connected at the heart, sharing the desire for a more just world. As Dr. Sarah Sayeed, Muslim Outreach Advisor in the NYC mayor's office,, said: “A meeting place for arts, human rights and the government. This is a new kind of coming together.” Our work uses the soft power of creativity to initiate novel manners of imagining social change, and inspiring learning around connectivity, community and social possibility. While bombs seem to be more powerful, and political advertising effective, we feel that the gentle waves of beauty, sincerity and engagement between our thousands of creative partners and the social leaders who ultimately make the legislative decisions we all live by, will lead to a more respectful and egalitarian society, in the 103+ countries within which we work.