Artists for Artists (AfA)

Artists for Artists is an online pedagogical program that facilitates a direct connection between internationally established artists and those in their early career stages. Artists for Artists editions take on diverse themes that each consider the role of art in relation to urgent political, social, and cultural issues. Artists for Artists is characterized by experimentation, inclusivity, and global outreach. Its modalities and praxis are informed by an ethos of solidarity and an equitable peer-to-peer principle. Artists for Artists describes this principle as a form of radical care – one of many crucial yet often overlooked strategies for enduring immediate crises, precarious lifeworks, and unstable futures.

We have been offline for 2024. To learn more about our previous editions, click here.

We are looking forward to working together in the coming months.

 

Artists for Artists stands in solidarity with Palestinians confronting 76 years of settler-colonial occupation. We recognise the ongoing crisis in Palestine as genocide, and urge that it be addressed accordingly. Israel’s illegal occupation must end: this requires ending Israel’s 16-year-long illegal blockade on Gaza, and all other aspects of Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians. 

Artists for Artists understands the vital role of artists, cultural workers, students and educators around the world in confronting this occupation, and for imagining new futures. We stand unequivocally for artistic and academic freedom and condemn all attempts to silence or constrain an open debate about the past, present and future of Palestine.

  • We stand in solidarity with artists, academics, students and cultural workers in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel facing unprecedented levels of violence - killing, intimidation, harassment, and arrest. 

  • We stand with artists, academics and students around the world who have lost their jobs or been subject to campaigns of harassment and intimidation due to expressing their views on Israel and Palestine in the course of their work or study.

  • We commit to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)—an effort “anchored in precepts of international law and universal human rights” that “rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity”. 

  • We affirm our determination to maintain and defend the right to learn openly, honestly, and fearlessly on subjects including genocide, ethnic cleansing, settler-colonialism, and racism.

    Image: “Watermelon” 2007, by Khaled Hourani