On the occasion of World Refugee Day, Gucci and ‘Chime For Change’ are proud to announce a new partnership with Artolution to help bring public arts programming to refugee and vulnerable communities around the world. Over the course of the next three years, these programmes will directly impact the lives of thousands of women, children and families from socially excluded and displaced communities, with interactive art projects to promote reconciliation, healing and inclusion. The partnership aims to foster empowerment and social justice through self-expression and gender equity.

Artolution is a non-profit, international, community-based public art organization founded in 2009 by artists Joel Bergner and Max Frieder. It is dedicated to promoting positive social change through creative, participatory and collaborative art-making in distressed communities. Through the making of murals and interactive sculptures, displaced and traumatised people learn empowerment through self-expression. Artolution has worked in communities across thirty countries, implementing over 400 projects, most recently in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

ArtWall in Hong Kong- courtesy of Gucci

To coincide with World Refugee Day, which was on the 20th of June, Gucci dedicated its global ArtWalls to Artolution, which specialises in visual public art mediums such as mural art and community sculpture (though many of its projects also include elements of performance such as dance, theatre and music). In New York, London, Milan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Gucci ArtWalls have been given over to Artolution to replicate community artworks that have been created around the world. In this way, Gucci is aiming to spread awareness of Artolution’s work and the determination and spirit of the women, children and families being helped by its programs.

As with previous ArtWall projects, the Gucci App offers the possibility to scan the ArtWalls and obtain details about the murals and what they represent.

Joel Bergner said: ‘We believe that the process of creating collaborative art is a powerful tool to bring diverse communities together in the face of conflict and social turmoil in order to address challenges that they face. Artolution projects engage women, youth and communities that have faced social exclusion and trauma, including refugees, street youth, the incarcerated, people with physical and mental disabilities, and young people living in areas of violent conflict or extreme poverty.’

Milan ArtWall. Courtesy of Gucci- by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti

Max Frieder said: ‘We focus on cultivating ongoing community-based public arts programmes by educating local artists and teachers globally on how to transform their communities through inspiring public engagement, creative facilitation and co-operative participation. Through these locally-led programmes, we believe this work is the next phase in the history of the arts and education in emergencies, conflicts and crises. Children and families are able to tell their stories through their own hands to their communities and to the world, this is the core of Artolution.’

This project is the latest expression of Gucci’s philosophy of ‘Equilibrium’- a balance of the aesthetic of the House with the ethics in which it believes.

Gucci Art Wall in London- courtesy of Samuel Keyte