We Are (for) Civil Society is a collaboration between Art Rights Truth (ART) and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

Civil society is under attack in many parts of the world. Such attacks can be legislative, administrative, financial or physical. Some categories of activists are particularly under threat – environmental, LGBTQI+, women – but none are exempt. Much work is being done to document these crackdowns and resistance to such measures. Less energy has been devoted to making the case for civil society, and more generally for human rights.

While in the past we may have assumed that the majority of people think that civil society and human rights are a ‘good thing’, we are living in an era where the case for both needs to be made anew.

In this call, we invited proposals from artists and activists working together seeking to communicate the value and contributions of civil society through art.