What if creativity, play, and hope could fuel global activism?
The global creative studio Fine Acts teaches hope-based communications in their training sessions on creative campaigning to inspire play and creativity on a global scale. They have empowered hundreds of organizations and artists to create impactful, hope-driven narratives and art-works which are used on a global scale. Read the full case study.
In a world where activists tirelessly fight for change, burnout is a constant threat. The challenges faced by those advocating for social justice can feel impossible, daunting, and overwhelming. Yana Buhrer Tavanier, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fine Acts, a global creative studio based in Bulgaria, emphasizes the power of play as an antidote to some of these issues.
“Science confirms that nothing lights up the brain like play. The opposite of play is not work, it’s depression,” she explains. For Yana, play, creativity, and hope are crucial to not only maintain mental well-being of activists, but also to enhance the effectiveness of their projects and results.
Fine Acts has been harnessing and promoting the power of play, creativity, and art as strategic tools for social impact since 2015. As a ‘playground for social change,’ Fine Acts operates at the intersections of advocacy, art, tech, and science, creating multidisciplinary spaces for play and experimentation within activism.
Yana had long felt that hope, which is closely connected to play, was vital in activist work. “I’ve been sensing this on a gut level for decades, but the question has been how to infuse that into activists’ work and back it up with science,” says Yana. Recognizing the need for a more science-backed and structured approach to inspire and sustain hope in the organizations they work with, Fine Acts integrated hope-based communications into their training programs.
“It was a breath of fresh air.”
When Yana was first introduced to the framework of hope-based communications, she says that “it was a breath of fresh air.”
Integrating hope-based communications provides a strategic and evidence-based framework for Fine Acts’ work. “It was amazing to be given the gift of validation. Not only did we have confirmation on something that our team has been sensing for a decade, but that it was a real strategy, informed and rooted in evidence. There are practitioners, there’s a theoretical base.”
In the past five years, Fine Acts has carried out approximately 30 training events on creative campaigning, incorporating the hope-based communications methodology, with about 500 participants from around the world. Notable organizations they have provided tailored training for include Obama Foundation, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the European Union National Institutes for Culture, and the European Liberal Forum.
One of Fine Acts’s impactful collaborations has been with The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPFF) between 2022-2023, training 50+ organizations across their global network. Some outputs from their work together include a new collection of hope-based visual artworks that are free to use for activists, educators, organizers, and health care providers fighting for SRHR around the world, which have reached over 2,000,000 viewers online and have been downloaded over 36,000 times for use in various campaigns around the world.
Another project, primarily with IPPF’s African partners, worked with 6 African artists on SRHR issues relevant in Zambia, Kenya, and Nigeria, which organizations could use for their community-based, communications, and advocacy work. Overall, the new artwork collection ranges on topics from abortion care, contraceptive care & sex ed to gender-based violence, gender equality & LGBTQI+ rights.
Yana explains that setting up the trainings with a strong base in the neuroscience helps to lay the foundation for why hope-based communication is important and effective. Yana and other Fine Acts trainers then introduce participants to hope as a strategic communications tool rooted in scientific principles. Their trainings cover the five hope-based shifts, as well as creative campaigning and visual framing. Fine Acts also often assists organizations in strategizing and conceptualizing their new hope-based campaigns.
“We teach participants that hope is not about putting on rose-tinted glasses or being optimistic, or about ignoring problems. It’s about putting problems in the context of a solution. It’s a way to communicate about the issues you have in a more effective way,” says Yana.
Fine Acts's work has included everything from training organizations to commissioning artwork and creating open-access pieces that all activists can use. One of their flagship platforms, TheGreats.co, addresses a critical need for many NGOs, grassroots groups, and activists who often lack the resources to create compelling visual materials. As of 2023, the platform has over 4000 activists and nonprofits registered, with works viewed 2,400,000+ times and 36,000+ downloads of full bundles for adaptation.
In the social impact sector, it’s so easy to feel that the work people are doing is daunting, overwhelming, and even impossible, according to Yana. “We need the feeling of: we got this!”
While mindset shifts that come out of workshops are important and inspiring, hope is a muscle that needs to be consistently trained. It’s also important to work with leadership to make them passionate about the hope-based approach, Yana said.
“People sometimes need to be given permission to be hopeful,” she says.
By incorporating the hope-based approach in their trainings, Fine Acts has been able to help numerous organizations reframe their campaigns in the context of solutions rather than problems, promote innovation and creativity, while ensuring their messages resonate deeply with their audiences by underpinning their trainings and work with a hope-based approach.
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