SPRINTS x
Beirut
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, this has grown into an extraordinary global collaboration with 20 TEDx events, collectively hosting 22 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.
In 2023/2024, we collaborated with 13 events, hand picked by the TEDx Program. We supported the amazing 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): Alfred Bader (EpS), Chiara Zakhia, Kabrit, Marie Alice, Marie Joe Ayoub (Mjay), Rim Ibrahim, Romy Matar
Our event in Lebanon
In 2023, in Lebanon we partnered with Ahla Fawda, a group that empowers individuals in vulnerable situations through collaborative programs and active civic engagement, and TEDxLauWomen – one of the most prominent TEDx events in Lebanon. The amazing team of Ahla Fawda, working with the support of TEDxLauWomen, hand-picked a powerful group of 7 local visual artists, organized a creative bootcamp and a public exhibition, and curated and produced the brilliant collection below.
The escalating conflict in the Middle East compelled us to transform the planned in-person bootcamp in Lebanon into an online gathering. The unsettling unrest prompted several of the artists to leave the country, seeking safety, and others had to drop out because of the mental health load they were experiencing. Adapting swiftly to these challenging circumstances, the organizers moved the bootcamp to the digital realm, ensuring the continuity of the event and the safety of all participants.
The pop-up exhibition however did happen in a physical setting, in a local bookstore in Beirut. Ahla Fawda and TEDxLauWomen are planning a more prominent edition of the exhibition in 2024.
The Exhibition
Reflections
“During the bootcamp, it was very much like “environment is positive, lifestyle, equal opportunities”. And we don’t feel it here in Lebanon. So we were cheating ourself in a way. But at the same time, it’s the planet. So if we are negative, it’s a negative effect on the planet. So the artists took it from there and tried to evolve their art on that basis.”
“Despite the negativity we are experiencing in Lebanon, being reached out by you guys, gave the artists an element of hope. They realize that it’s a global thing, that their impact could be on a bigger level. So it gave them hope, it gave them motivation. They’re still talking about it. They were very happy with it”
“It was challenging, but it was interesting. They loved the experience. they felt the challenge, they felt the competition, which was good. I, personally really loved the teamwork. You know, every artist has their own ideas. So when in the bootcamp they were sharing them openly, it was interesting to observe the learning experience between them.”
The Collection
Marie Joe Ayoub (Lebanon)
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Marie Alice (Lebanon)
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