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Applications Now Open for

2025 International Human Rights Art Festival

Join the resistance!

December 8-14 at The Tank

Submissions are now open for the 7th Annual International Human Rights Art Festival, the largest human rights art festival in New York City, which will take place December 8-14, 2025 at The Tank (312 W 36th St., New York, NY 10018).

“It is clear that our current American political class has all the tensile strength of tissue paper in a summer storm, and that our court system is porous, offering a weak and possibly irrelevant backstop to what was once the strongest democracy in the world,” said Thomas Block, Founding Executive Director of the International Human Rights Art Movement. “As in all authoritarian states, it is left to the artists and creators to hold the line, to stand up for what is right and just, and to safeguard the republic. America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism, and only the creators have the courage to resist.”

The festival is currently seeking 10-20 minute works that highlight themes of:

● Climate Change Action

● Immigration

● LGBTQIA+

● Celebration of Women & Women in Power

● Undiscovered Black Men & Women

● Shalom/Salaam

● With Love from Africa

● Other social justice concerns

IHRAF is also seeking short plays for their Ten Minute Play Festival and Ten Minute

Performance Festival. All accepted performers will receive:

● Performance stipends of $200

● PR and marketing support

● 30-minute tech rehearsal

● Festival TD and SM

● Free photographic documentation of the performance

● Free video documentation of the performance

To submit your application please email IHRAF Assistant Producer Costanza Bugiani at costanza@humanrightsartmovement.org with the following information:

● A brief description of your piece, including approximate running time - we’re accepting 10-20 minute works.

● A cover letter, including details regarding the piece’s discipline, issue of concern treated and a brief summary of your artistic goals

● Your bios or resumes and the names of any collaborators already on board

● A sample of work (scripts, pics, videos, songs, any other links or file that could help us to know more about your project)

Applications must be submitted by August 15, 2025. Results will be announced to

applications by September 8, 2025. The full schedule for the 2025 festival will be announced by October 1, 2025. There is no fee to apply. For more information and to submit your application please visit https://humanrightsartmovement.org/ihraf-festival-call-2025.

The International Human Rights Art Festival (IHRAF), a presentation of the International Human Rights Art Movement, was founded at Dixon Place (NYC) in March 2017 to create an open space for performance artists-activists in New York City to tell their stories and influence society. Freedom of expression and ethnic/cultural/economic and religious diversity are fundamental to our work, as is the protection of human rights and social justice. DEI is in our DNA, as we use creativity to build a more equitable world. We believe in a world where artists are free to use their creativity to provide an engine for social change, and their work is honored

as a human right. We have presented more than 1500 performers from 60+ countries in NYC at 30 interim events, as well as 6 full-week festivals, highlighting the breadth of NYC’s cultural communities. Our work has been covered by the New York Times, NY Observer, Crain’s NY Business, Brooklyn Rail, AM-NY, Metro-NY, Fox 5 Morning Show, NBC Live! and many more; tweeted about by the Mayor’s office, and highlighted numerous times by the NYC Commission on Human Rights.