The Greats
In 2021, we continued actively developing and promoting TheGreats.co, our unique global platform for open-licensed socially engaged visual content, free for activists and nonprofits from all across the world to use and adapt non-commercially.
Currently, the platform that just celebrated its second year features 1000+ free artworks (and counting) by over 800 global artists, on topics ranging from women's rights, LGBT+ rights, racial justice, freedom of expression, and many more. There are over 1 300 activists and non-profits registered on the platform. The works on The Greats have been viewed a total of 150 000+ times, many were saved for direct use, and we have registered 10 000 downloads of full bundles with work files allowing adaptation.
The Greats has attracted amazing support and interest, with hundreds of organizations - large and small - using and adapting the illustrations for their work. These include the UN Human Rights Council, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Creative Commons, the European Commission, Women for Refugee Women, Greenpeace, Transparency International, ActionAid International, the Fundamental Rights Agency, the Edinburgh Science Festival, and the University of California, Berkeley, among many, many others.
Most of the content on The Greats is commissioned by us at Fine Acts, through our creative challenges. On top of that, many artists have decided to open up their existing works to support the efforts of activists worldwide. Submitted works undergo careful selection and curation by our team.
2021 was a special year for The Greats because the platform was honored as Finalist in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards! We were chosen as one of just 4 Finalists in the Creativity category, amongst the largest number of entries ever received for the awards.
The Greats provides a solution to a key issue for the civic sector - powerful, hopeful visual content is of grave importance for engaging support, however, often organizations and social movements lack the capacity and resources to create it. High-quality and impactful visuals are often either difficult to find for free, or do not allow adaptations. Our platform is without analogue - as all illustrations are published under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), allowing free use AND adaptation. For all works, we publish the work files, in addition to the print files, so that nonprofits, grassroots organizations, social movements and activists globally can use and adapt them according to their needs - e.g. translating or changing the copy, etc.
Seeing Hope
The Creative Playbook
