In 2017, York became the UK’s first human rights city. This unique innovation in localising human rights was based on an approach that consciously related human rights to everyday local concerns; emphasised that human rights can be positive and enabling (problem solving, empowering) as well as critical and adversarial; and sought to work with the City Council when we found common ground, while reserving the right to be critical when differences arose. Based on a survey of local residents an accessible annual indicator report is produced focusing on five priority rights: non-discrimination and inequality, education, health and social care, housing, and a decent standard of living. This work is led by the York Human Rights City Network (YHRCN), a civil society coalition co-hosted by the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York, and York Centre for Voluntary Service (CVS). Local progress on human rights has been made despite the backdrop of austerity, Brexit, rising populism, and political and media criticism of the Human Rights Act. YHRCN has used the arts (film festivals, plays, etc.) extensively as a means of framing messages and engaging with a wider range of audiences. ART will draw on this body of work to develop new languages and idioms for human rights that are calibrated for a local context, and tease out any transferable lessons for other settings.