UPDATE: ARC is deeply saddened to learn of the killing of additional artists during the January protests in Iran and calls on the authorities to stop their assault on and detention of protesters, and on the international community to take urgent action to halt escalating human rights violations.

✍️ Open Call: IHRAF – Hannah Arendt Festival (NYC, June 5–7, 2026) The International Human Rights Art Movement invites artists & performers to submit live work (any discipline, 10–20 min) inspired by the ideas of Hannah Arendt.

How are young artists and cultural organizers using creativity to resist authoritarianism, build solidarity, and reimagine participation and justice?

🇮🇷ARC strongly condemns reported killings and attacks against artists in Iran amid nationwide protests that began on 28 Dec 2025.

🇹🇿⛓️ ARC calls for an end to the judicial harassment of Emanuel Mathias, a Tanzanian artist who was arbitrarily detained on 11 Dec in Dar es Salaam and released on bail after a month of being held without charge. He remains under restrictive conditions that limit his freedom.

The U.S. decision to withdraw from numerous international and UN-affiliated organizations, including our partner IFACCA, threatens the ecosystem that helps protect artistic freedom and cultural rights worldwide. #ArtistsAtRisk #CulturalRights #ArtisticFreedom #FreeExpression

“I believe it is regrettable that many Venezuelan artists are not condemning the military intervention of the USA in Venezuela, especially artists addressing geopolitical issues in their work and assuming postcolonial stances...

📢 ARC in the press—Reflecting on last year. As we get started in the new year, ARC is looking back at moments throughout 2025 when we’ve been featured in the press.

“Safety is never a promise. It is just a way to get me to compromise.” — Badiucao Badiucao is a Chinese political cartoonist whose satirical art confronts censorship, authoritarianism, and human rights abuses. Working for years under a pseudonym, he continues to use art as a form of resistance.

🌱✨ Only FIVE DAYS left to apply for Prince Claus Fund SEED Award 2026! Are you an early-career artist or cultural practitioner whose work engages urgent local social or political issues? The 2026 SEED Award is still open for applications!

✨HAPPY NEW YEAR from ARC! As ARC steps into 2026 with determination and hope, we reflect on the immense challenges artists and cultural workers continue to face around the world. Artistic freedom is not abstract. It is a cornerstone of human rights and a global catalyst for change.

🇰🇷📢 ARC joins call to drop all charges against Jung Yoon-suk! We stand with the South Korean filmmaker who has been unjustly prosecuted for his documentary work reporting on civil unrest. ARC has joined ICFR and partners in urging Korean authorities to immediately drop all charges against him.

As we near the end of 2025, ARC is reflecting on moments that reminded us why this work matters. ✨ Today, we highlight the release this year of Alaa Abd El Fatta—after years of unjust imprisonment in Egypt, including continued detention beyond the completion of his arbitrary sentence.

⏰🔥 Últimos 2 días para postular a la Beca de Resiliencia para Artistas Cubanos Migrantes. Accede a acompañamiento profesional, recursos y una comunidad de artistas en la diáspora. Postula aquí: artistsatriskconnection.org/cuban-migran... #ArteCubano #BecaDeResiliencia #ArtistasCubanosMigrantes

⏰🔥 Only 2 days left to apply to the Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship. Get professional support, resources, and a community of artists in the diaspora. Apply here: artistsatriskconnection.org/cuban-migran... #CubanArt #ResilienceFellowship #CubanMigrantArtists

🎥“I didn’t plan to become an activist… The artistic products are tools to push for changing laws.” — Zeina Daccache

🌍 The week of #InternationalMigrantsDay, we honor the resilience, creativity, and contributions of migrants worldwide. Migrants, and the artists among them, enrich our cultures, communities, and shared human story.

🌟 Conoce a las dos primeras cohortes de la Beca de Resiliencia para Artistas Cubanos Migrantes. Esta tercera edición permitirá que los nuevos becarios exhiban junto a los ex-becarios.

🌟 Meet the first two cohorts of the Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship. This third edition will allow new fellows to exhibit alongside program alumni. 📌 Applications open: artistsatriskconnection.org/cuban-migran... #CubanArt #ResilienceFellowship #CubanMigrantArtists #ARCalumni

🎶 “Reggae is a music that never runs out of breath.” — Elie Kamano Guinean reggae singer and activist Elie Kamano has spent two decades using music to challenge repression and mobilize youth for justice and democracy.

ARC strongly condemns the arrest of Iranian artists & human rights defenders Earlier today, photographer Aliyeh Motalebzadeh, visual artist & activist Sepideh Gholian, and writer Abolfazl Abri were detained during a ceremony marking the 7-day mourning period for human rights lawyer Khosro Alikordi

🎼The full recording of our panel for NY Music Month is now available! In June, ARC held "Music, Freedom, and Global Lessons to Confront National Challenges,” co-sponsored by NYC Media and Entertainment (MOME).

Human Rights Day 2025: "Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials" Today, ARC honors five powerful artists whose work advances justice, resilience, and dignity: 🇵🇸 Doha Kahlout 🇨🇺 Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara 🇮🇷 Samaneh Atef 🇺🇦 Nikita Kadan 🇰🇪 Javan The Poet 🇦🇫 Zahra Abrahimi

📣 La Beca de Resiliencia apoya a artistas cubanos migrantes en sus procesos creativos y abre nuevas oportunidades en sus carreras. Súmate a la comunidad para acceder a mentorías, apoyo financiero, redes de colaboración y oportunidades para mostrar tu trabajo.

📣 The Cuban Migrant Artist Resilience Fellowship supports Cuban artists in exile in their creative journeys and opens new career opportunities. Join the community for mentorship, financial support, collaborative networks, and chances to showcase your work!

For me, art cannot be separated from life. There was art in everything my people did.” — Yacunã Tuxá

🛑🇧🇩 ARC calls on the Government of Bangladesh to protect the Baul community following the arrest of singer Abul Sarkar and increasingly violent attacks on Baul artists.

🛑🇨🇺 Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara has begun a hunger strike in prison—on the eve of what will be his 5th birthday behind bars. ARC urges Cuban authorities to immediately release Otero Alcántara and all unjustly-detained artists and prisoners of conscience in Cuba.

What would our world be without art? No music. No films. No books. No stories. Voices silenced before they reach us.

Are you a passionate advocate for artistic freedom in Europe? Join us tomorrow at 11am for a special session of Forum Europe Créative 2025 at the Maison des Métallos in Paris, hosted by ARC: “Being Free: Safeguarding Artistic and Cultural Freedoms in Europe.”

“We fell in love with how calligraphy can define a city.” — Javier Serrano Guerra / Boa Mistura Madrid-born street-art collective Boa Mistura transforms public spaces around the world through murals and participatory urban art, using color, typography and community-driven creativity.

🎥🇲🇽En el encuentro de la Red de Festivales de Cine de Derechos Humanos de Abya Yala la semana pasada, conversamos con el Embajador de Colombia en México, Carlos Fernando García Manosalva, uno de los impulsores de larga data del Festival de Cine Sin Fronteras.

🎥🇲🇽 Last week at the meeting of la Red de Festivales de Cine de Derechos Humanos del Abya Yala, ARC spoke with Colombia’s Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Fernando García Manosalva, a long-time supporter of the Festival de Cine Sin Fronteras.

¡Artistas cubanos migrantes: postúlense hoy! En respuesta a los desafíos persistentes que enfrentan los artistas cubanos en el exilio, ARC lanza la tercera edición de la Beca de Resiliencia para Artistas Cubanos Migrantes.

Cuban Migrant Artists: Apply today! In response to the enduring challenges faced by Cuban artists in exile, ARC is launching the third edition of the Cuban Migrant Artists Resilience Fellowship.

ARC is honored to take part in Forum Europe Créative 2025 in Paris, moderating a session on December 2 dedicated to artistic and cultural freedoms!

“Artists are the canaries in the coal mine… we have a special role to play in sounding the alarm and pushing back against the forces that want to make us be quiet.” — Dashka Slater (@dashkaslater.bsky.social)

🇺🇦🌻 "In times of crisis such as war, solidarity should be a reciprocal practice." Earlier this year, ARC hosted a panel discussion and launch event to celebrate the release of "Navigating the War as Artists in Ukraine: A Practical Resource” by MOCA NGO.

📣 TOMORROW at 12pm CST, join ARC's partners for a special virtual session on online censorship to kick off the Fall of Freedom campaign!

🎥 🇲🇽 From 18–22 Nov, ARC will join the Abya Yala Human Rights Film Festival Network meeting at Cine Sin Fronteras in Tijuana!

On #DayoftheImprisonedWriter 2025, ARC joins PEN International, PEN MENA, and PEN America in standing with writers imprisoned for their words, including Algerian poet Mohamed Tadjadit.

⛓ 🇩🇿ARC welcomes the humanitarian release of Algerian-French writer Boualem Sansal, now safely in Germany for critical medical care. “His case is a stark reminder that artists worldwide continue to be targeted, silenced, or criminalized for ideas that challenge power.”

At #CECArtsLink2025Assembly, we joined artists & advocates to ask: How do we defend creativity when imagination itself is being defunded?

“It was then that I realized: contemporary dance could be a tool of expression that allows us to transmit our story.” - Taigué Ahmed

“There are songs I couldn’t sing at first because they hurt too much... After many years, I realized: this wound no longer hurts.” — Rebeca Lane Guatemalan musician & activist Rebeca Lane uses hip-hop to empower women and challenge patriarchy across Latin America.

“Our opposition thrives on chaos.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones As censorship and political attacks on art and education escalate across the U.S., her words from ARC’s “Dangerous Art / Endangered Artists” summit last May feel more urgent than ever.

From Kenya, to Madagascar, Nepal, and beyond, youth-led movements are reshaping the fight for justice—and artists are leading the charge.

The #CECArtsLink2025Assembly: Defending Each Other! — is THIS WEEK, Nov 6–7 at La MaMa Theatre (NYC) + online! Join ARC's Executive Director Julie Trébault & Achiro P. Olwoch for a session on defending artists, and hear from longtime ARC collaborator Mai Khoi at a separate morning session.

“The worst part of this story is that after fear and censorship, and even after having left the country, you still do not feel safe — and you still risk censorship in your drawings, in your paintings.” — Samaneh Atef

‼️🇺🇸 ARC strongly condemns the U.S. government’s arbitrary revocation of Nigerian writer and Nobel-laureate Wole Soyinka’s visa–a deeply troubling act that undermines freedom of expression and international cultural exchange. Read our statement: artistsatriskconnection.org/statement/re...