SPRINTS x
TEDxAmazônia

Use these awesome visuals.
Act for climate now.

About SPRINTS

Countdown, TED’s initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, and Fine Acts – a global creative studio for social impact, joined forces to kick off a series of SPRINTS creative bootcamps on climate change around the world. The goal: to engage artists to envision what a better climate future looks like. Today, four years later, this has grown into an extraordinary global collaboration with 22 TEDx events, collectively hosting 24 SPRINTS.

SPRINTS is an original format, developed by Fine Acts – a creative bootcamp where visual artists are briefed on a topic by experts, and then have 48 hours to produce an artwork on that specific issue. Throughout the process, artists are supported by a pool of mentors. Each edition of SPRINTS also ends with a public pop-up exhibition.

Furthermore, all visuals are published under an open license, so that activists, nonprofits, movements and educators globally can use and adapt them in their work towards climate action.

The TEDx events we collaborate with are hand picked by the TEDx Program. We supported the TEDx teams to select awesome local visual artists, organize effective creative bootcamps and inspiring public exhibitions, and curate a host of brilliant illustration collections.

As a result, hundreds of new artworks joined our unique Artists for Climate vault with open-licensed visuals on climate change. Selected works were also featured on Fine Acts’ global platform for free socially-engaged art – TheGreats.co, where they joined The Climate Collection, an invaluable public resource with a distinct focus on hope & solutions.

*Meet the awesome artists (from left to right): André Hullk, Caio Alvex, Felipe Moia, Hadna Abreu, Helô Rodrigues, Moara Tupinambá, Natália Lobo, Renata Segtowick, Uritã, ZAG*

Our event in Brazil

In June 2025, we partnered with TEDxAmazônia – a landmark TEDx event held in Belém, Pará, deep in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Together, we curated a powerful creative experience featuring 10 visual artists from the northern region of Brazil, all of whom live and work in the Amazon.

These artists were selected to take part in a three-day bootcamp during TEDxAmazônia, held between June 6–8, in the iconic Teatro da Paz. Most of the participants were present in person and created their works live while attending the talks and sessions. Each artist was given their own workstation, located in “Paradise,” the beautiful top floor of the theater.

The bootcamp began on Friday evening with a warm welcome, artist introductions, and the first TEDx talks to serve as inspiration. Saturday was the most dynamic day, filled with creativity, exchange, and conversations. On Sunday morning, the project was presented to the full TEDx audience. The organizers introduced the Fine Acts x Countdown initiative, shared the concept behind the collaboration, and each artist had the opportunity to speak about their inspiration and creative process. The three artists who couldn’t attend in person sent audio messages, which were played on the TEDx stage for the audience.

“Discussing the climate crisis is urgent, and nothing is more fair than the protagonists of this debate being the voices that live in the largest biome in the world”, says Jade Jares, curator for the SPRINTS x TEDxAmazônia event.

The Bootcamp & Exhibition

Reflections

“Participating in SPRINTS was an incredible experience, both professionally and personally.
Having the chance to hear voices from different parts of the world while producing a work of art, listening to ideas and ways of perceiving and relating to nature was very important! Mainly to think about the challenges and possible solutions we have to guarantee the future. It was also an opportunity to show that what we do as independent artists is relevant and that the northern region has many talented artists who should be valued.”

— Natália Lobo, artist

“The three days of experience within the SPRINTS at TEDxAmazônia were deeply enriching. The exchange with so many artists from the North region, full of talent and unique creativity, contributed immensely to my professional and personal growth. In times dominated by screens and home office routines, experiences of collective creation and in-person interaction become even more essential – displays are valuable tools, but no technology replaces the power of live exchanges.”

— Caio Alvex, artist

“Participating in TEDxAmazônia SPRINTS 2025 as an artist was a deeply transformative experience. Listening to each voice rising in defense of the Amazon touched me in a visceral way – as if every word wove, with invisible threads, a vast network of collective dreams. Voices that call for social justice, that recognize the forest as a living and sacred being, and that believe, as I do, in a future where the forest stands tall. I felt part of something greater: a movement of listening, of action, and of hope. It was an immense honor to give visual form to these voices – like a river flowing in winding shapes, with warm colors and abundant poetry. May we all become a force for good wherever this river flows.”

— Hadna Abreu, artist