Call for Entries: International Contest for Minority Artists Program 2025

The 2025 theme constitutes an exploration of minority rights and minority experience in relation to questions of belonging, environmental justice and climate change, as well as wider questions of minority attachment to place and existence, as well as loss of community, language and culture.

Minority artists play a key role in articulating and challenging environmental racism and climate-change related harms, and rendering them into forms which can grip the public imagination. Minority expression brings to light the disruption of lifeworlds and renders expressions of grief at loss into objects of beauty and power. Minority artists also render visions of renewal, care, resilience and strength.

Aim

• The 2025 Edition of the International Contest for Minority Artists stands at the heart of the Minority Artists for Human Rights (2024-2028), a global initiative that aims to build a collective and platform for continuous learning, bringing together present and future generations of minority artists that provide a voice to the voiceless, and driving positive change.

Themes

• The international human rights framework addresses the themes of belonging, place and loss from a number of angles.
• The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992):
  • Protecting a minority’s existence, including through protection of their physical integrity and the prevention of genocide;
  • Protecting and promoting cultural and social identity, including the right of individuals to choose which ethnic, linguistic or religious groups they wish to be identified with, and the right of those groups to affirm and protect their collective identity and to reject forced assimilation;
  • Ensuring effective non-discrimination and equality, including ending structural or systemic discrimination; and
  • Ensuring effective participation of members of minorities in public life, especially with regard to decisions that affect them.
• Human Rights and the Environment
• Human Rights and Climate Change
• Environmental Racism/Environmental Justice
• Minorities, Human Rights and Place

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must identify themselves as belonging to a national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minority, in accordance with the 1992 UN Minorities Declaration.
• Applicants can be of any nationality or stateless.
• All art formats are eligible, there are no limitations on style or medium. Submissions must however be in electronic format.
• The artwork speaks to the theme of shedding light on the theme of “Belonging, Place and Loss”.
• Application to the contest is free-of charge; there is no application and no facilitation fee.
• The work submitted must have been made by the applicant(s) or must be the result of collaborative efforts in which the applicant is included.
• The artwork must be submitted in digital format.

Review Criteria

• When reviewing the entrant artists and their artwork, criteria to be discussed by the Judges Panel may include, but are not limited to:
  • Artistic merit
  • Elements in the artist’s work giving insights on minority issues, identity and/or experience
  • Relevance of the artist’s views and work to the topic of the contest
  • Creativity and innovation
  • Effective reach and impact of more established works or perceived potential of increasing visibility of less known ones
  • Bravery and/or originality in addressing difficult themes or issues
  • Dedication

For more information, visit United Nations Human Rights.