Jury
Bahia Shehab
Artist
TED Senior Fellow Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and art historian. She is Professor of design and founder of the graphic design program at The American University in Cairo. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and streets around the world. Through investigating Islamic art history she reinterprets contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse, and social issues. She is a recipient of a Prince Claus Award and is the first Arab woman to receive the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. Shehab holds a PhD from Leiden University and is the founding director of Type Lab@AUC. Her publications include You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution, A Thousand Times NO, and A History of Arab Graphic Design.
Bruno Giussani
TED Global Curator
Bruno Giussani is the global curator of TED and the co-organizer and lead curator of TED's climate initiative, Countdown. He joined TED in 2005, and produced the first TEDGlobal conference that year in Oxford. For 12 years, he was the organization's European director and member of its senior team, curating and co-hosting a number of events, curating hundreds of talks, and participating in the definition and implementation of TED's international strategy. Giussani is also the chairman of the annual Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, and an advisor to Science Gallery Venice. Prior to joining TED, Giussani was head of online strategy at the World Economic Forum, a senior adviser to the Atlantic Council, and a JS Knight Fellow at Stanford University.
Oliver Jeffers
Artist and Storyteller
Oliver Jeffers is a visual artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance, and sculpture. Curiosity and humor are underlying themes throughout Oliver's practice as an artist and storyteller. While investigating the ways the human mind understands its world, his work also functions as comic relief in the face of futility. His critically acclaimed picture books have been translated into over fifty languages and sold over 14 million copies worldwide. His original artwork has been exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Jeffers has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award.
Brooke Robinson
Artist and Founder of Goodtype
Brooke Robinson is known for her curation of the largely popular lettering resource, Goodtype, founded in 2013. She began her art career at a young age, influenced by her mother’s beautiful oils on canvas. She created a lot of mixed media collages on heavyweight paper, integrating acrylics, typography and found imagery. Eventually, Brooke’s art career paused to make way for a more disciplined and stable graphic design job, post graduation, at a large Texas clothing retailer – where she also learned how to produce and manage the marketing and social media which played a large role in leading her to where she is today with Goodtype. She now runs Goodtype and Sunsurfer.art full-time in Austin, TX. Brooke, has since then, warmly invited her more playful and artistic side back to the stage.
Yana Buhrer Tavanier
Activist and Executive Director of Fine Acts
TED Senior Fellow Yana Buhrer Tavanier is the co-founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global nonprofit creative studio for social impact. Her work exploring the intersections of activism and art, tech & science, and her subsequent concept of playtivism, won her a 2018 TED Residency and a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholarship. Before Fine Acts, Yana was an award-winning investigative journalist, and co-founder of TimeHeroes.org. She holds MA in Political Science from Sofia University; and Executive Education from Harvard, Yale, and Oxford University. Yana is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, and was named one of 50 people who will change the world in WIRED’s Smart List 2012.
Safwat Saleem
Artist
TED Senior Fellow Safwat Saleem is a Pakistani-American visual artist who focuses on the idea of belonging. His work attempts to simultaneously understand and question what it means to be a part of a community and the responsibility we have toward those who feel they don’t belong. Safwat's artwork often combines several media like print, collage, audio, video, and participatory installations to create storytelling experiences. Humor is a key ingredient in his work and acts as a crucial starting point for thought-provoking discussions about underlying social issues. In a past life, he was also the founder of Bandbaja, a Pakistani music magazine that promoted the use of modern popular music as a socio-political tool. He likes pizza (like, a lot).
Shiv Soin
Activist and Executive Director of TREEage
Shiv Soin is a fourth-year student at New York University, and the co-founder and Executive Director of TREEage, a youth grassroots group fighting to create and implement a local Green New Deal in New York City. Under Shiv's leadership, TREEage has grown into a force in New York City through leading climate strikes and building a membership base of hundreds of young New Yorkers. Shiv has also served as the lead organizer for the NYC September 20th, 2019 Global Climate Strike, which became the largest youth climate mobilization in history with over 315,000 strikers.