In September, our Chair Pavel Kounchev participated as a panelist in the “Art as Activism” session of the Athens Democracy Forum, organized in association with The New York Times. Pavel talked about how effective art is in fostering democracy and inspiring change, together with prominent contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei, renowned author and historian Bettany Hughes, and former UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova.

In October, Fine Acts took part in the biggest human rights event in Europe - Rights Forum 21, organized by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Our Executive Director Yana Buhrer Tavanier, our Chair Pavel Kounchev and our Campaigns Director Svetla Baeva ran two sessions on "The value of hope, play and openness for human rights"; and "How to effectively communicate human rights" through the showcasing of Love Speech, our powerful campaign on hate speech.

In November, Fine Acts' co-founder and Executive Director Yana Buhrer Tavanier participated in the "Why the arts matter" opening session for the renowned Art for Tomorrow talks, organized in collaboration with The New York Times. Alongside prominent writer Elif Shafak, and NYT cultural correspondent Farah Nayeri, Yana spoke about the grave importance of art on pressing social issues; and why non-democratic regimes and authoritarian politicians are afraid of art.

Invited by the European Cultural Foundation, we also took part in the Europe Day initiative, together with many other European changemakers, artists, thinkers, policymakers and activists. The session focused on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free, open-licensed, socially-engaged illustrations, and our creative challenge – Culture of Solidarity.

Throughout the year we also organized a number of trainings (highlight: our Oslo Freedom Forum Fellows workshop); gave keynotes (highlights: the International Planned Parenthood Federation Roundtable; and the EADI Roundtable on Narratives); and produced, coordinated or participated in a total of 34 exhibitions and art actions, in 20 countries – for our Artists for Climate, TEDx SPRINTS, Love Speech, Culture of Solidarity, Postcards from Forever campaigns, and more.