The Next 20: Making the Invisible, Visible

As we celebrate two decades of transformative work and build upon our The Next 20: Making the Invisible, Visible initiative, this 15-piece photographic collection brings to life the hidden barriers, unseen strengths, and community-led solutions that have shaped our journey. From early ArtCorps murals to Indigenous women claiming public space in Guatemala and young girls advocating for their futures in East Africa, these images reveal how today's artistic and community-led action lay the foundation for sustainable impact over the next two decades.

For over twenty years, Creative Action Institute has worked alongside communities living at the frontlines of biodiversity loss, climate change, and gender inequality—where local voices hold the key to survival. In 2000, the New England Biolabs Foundation launched us as ArtCorps, a program designed to protect ecosystems by starting with the people who care for them. We sent artists to live and work in these communities, using murals, theater, and visual art to bring hidden dialogues about land and rights into the light.

As our work evolved from temporary art projects to sustainable movement-building, we shifted to training local leaders to harness creative tools themselves—a model first tested in Belize in 2013 that now supports grassroots environmental advocacy across Latin America and West Africa.

As we grew, it became clear that climate justice and gender equity are inseparable. In East Africa, where girls face severe pressures from drought, child marriage, and school disruption, we launched Sauti ya Dada ("The Girls' Voice") to ensure their experiences and leadership were no longer invisible. Today, 99% of girls in these clubs stay in school, stepping up as visible leaders in their communities.

It feels deeply fitting to bring these stories back to New England Biolabs, where our journey began. As you virtually walk through these images, we invite you to see how revealing unseen needs today secures a more just and sustainable world for the next 20 years.

In 2006, we launched as ArtCorps, a nonprofit spun off from the New England Biolabs Foundation to support community development across health, conservation, and livelihoods. On International Women’s Day in 2011, artist Isabel Carrió photographed 100 Indigenous women and displayed their portraits prominently in Purulhá’s central park. By making these women visually unavoidable in a public space, the project honored their quiet contributions and asserted their leadership. Afterward, each woman brought her portrait home—a lasting symbol of visible strength.

Photo Details
Partner: FUNDENOR AQ’AB’AL
Location: (2011) Purulhá, Guatemala
Photographer: Isabel Carrió

To build lasting capacity beyond visiting artists, we piloted our Creative Environmental Leadership Program (CELP), training local advocacy leaders in systems thinking and creative facilitation. Environmental challenges ignore borders; in 2024, youth from Guatemala and Honduras tackled shared pollution in the Motagua River. Through pen-pal letters, joint murals, and direct dialogue with decision-makers, they brought the unseen realities of coastal waste to light and paved the way for cross-border river stewardship over the next two decades.

Photo Details
Partner: IDAMHO
Location: (2024) Omoa, Honduras

When we expanded to East Africa in 2013, we saw how deeply girls' education dictates every aspect of their future. Through Sauti ya Dada ("The Girls' Voice"), women mentor fellows help adolescent girls identify and challenge the hidden systemic barriers that keep them out of school. Today, 99% of club members remain enrolled, stepping into visible leadership roles across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Photo Details
Partner: Their Voice Initiative
Location: (2023) Karonji, Rwanda

When COVID-19 disrupted global travel, we adapted by taking creative collaboration online. In West Africa, virtual grantees brainstormed local threats—from polluted waterways to climate impacts on native foods. CAI Senior Program Manager, Isabel Carrió, synthesized their hidden stories into a digital concept, which Ghanaian artist Nicolas Wayo transformed into a prominent public mural in Accra, demonstrating how remote creativity can drive local advocacy.

Photo Details
Location: (2021) Accra, Ghana
Digital art: Isabel Carrió and Nicolas Wayo

Youth hold the key to sustainable futures, yet they are often disconnected from ancestral environmental knowledge. Through Creative Advocacy Practicums (CAPs), we support community-led projects that bridge this gap. In Aquia, high in the Peruvian Andes, endangered queuña forests face growing threats as traditional conservation knowledge fades. Local youth partnered with elders to uncover ancestral forest practices, translating these hidden insights into theater, photography, and film.

Photo Details
Partner: Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN)
Location: (2024) Aquia, Perú
Photographer: CAP youth participants

Participants handcrafted masks of animals that depend on the queuña forests, including endangered species like the Andean condor. They wore these masks during performances, video productions, and for photographs, using art to transform abstract biodiversity loss into an urgent, visible narrative for the entire community.

Photo Details
Partner: Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN)
Location: (2024) Aquia, Perú
Photographer: CAP youth participants

By learning photography and video production, youth shifted from passive audience members to active storytellers. Planning and shooting the media themselves, they documented both traditional practices and the threats facing their environment. ECOAN now embeds their youth-produced video as a central tool in ongoing regional reforestation campaigns.

Photo Details
Partner: Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN)
Location: (2024) Aquia, Perú
Photographer: CAP youth participants

This youth-led advocacy effort culminated in a community-wide showcase where local leaders publicly pledged ongoing support for conservation(?). Today, handcrafted masks hang permanently in Aquia's community hall, ECOAN continues using the youth-produced film in its reforestation campaigns, and local schools have integrated environmental education into their curricula.

Photo Details
Partner: Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN)
Location: (2024) Aquia, Perú
Photographer: CAP youth participants

Just as young storytellers in Peru bring hidden environmental issues to light, adolescent girls across East Africa use creative advocacy to confront the unseen barriers in their own lives. Through Sauti ya Dada ("The Girls' Voice"), girls build leadership skills and explore sexual and reproductive health, climate justice, and rights—gaining the confidence and creative tools to engage their families and communities in transformative solutions.

Photo Details
Partner: Club Rafiki
Location: (2024) Kigali, Rwanda

In Kigali, Rwanda, girl leaders identified teen pregnancy as the primary cause of school dropout. Working with a local artist, they facilitated a workshop to examine the root causes, then co-created a community mural visualizing these challenges. They invited families and local leaders to an interactive unveiling featuring traditional dance and guided dialogues to address these issues openly.

Photo Details
Partner: Club Rafiki
Location: (2024) Kigali, Rwanda

Lasting social change requires the commitment of the whole community. Following the mural presentation, parents, teachers, and local leaders made public pledges to support girls' education and discuss reproductive health openly. By transforming silent struggles into shared dialogue, the community created a safer, more supportive environment for girls.

Photo Details
Partner: Club Rafiki
Location: (2024) Kigali, Rwanda

As droughts and extreme heat put new pressure on families, climate change increasingly threatens girls’ access to school. We integrated an accessible climate justice module into Sauti ya Dada, prompting global partners such as Room to Read, Aga Khan Foundation, USAID, FCDO, and VVOB, to collaborate with us on developing climate curricula and teacher trainings through a gender lens.

Photo Details
Partner: Bwiza Youth Bridge
Location: (2025) Bugesera, Rwanda

Just as Sauti ya Dada elevates the unseen experiences of young girls, our Creative Environmental Leadership Program honors the hidden wisdom communities already possess. In the Awajún community of Shushug, students and teachers partnered with reserve park rangers to collect ancestral stories of land stewardship from elders. By publishing these narratives in a bilingual book pairing traditional wisdom with conservation science, they ensured generational knowledge remains a visible guide for future conservation.

Photo Details
Partner: ECACHAYUNAIN
Location: (2025) Peru

Through our Creative Environmental Leadership Program, local advocates design Creative Advocacy Practicums (CAPs)—our signature community-led projects that bring local, hidden knowledge into action. In the Yanesha community of Santa Rosa de Pichanaz, preserving the forest and safeguarding native culture go hand in hand. To revive the fading Yeñoño language and traditional ecological knowledge, primary students wrote letters to their grandparents requesting lessons in ancestral practices. Elders demonstrated these skills on film, culminating in a community premiere honoring eleven elders with diplomas written in Yeñoño. The celebration was such a success that local leaders now plan to make it an annual tradition, ensuring this ancestral wisdom remains a visible guide for future land stewards.

Photo Details
Partner: CEARE
Location: (2025) Comunidad Nativa Santa Rosa de Pichanaz
Photographer: Rodrigo Carbajal

Building on the foundation of our Creative Environmental Leadership Program, in 2023 we launched the Community Resilience Program to address the multi-faceted challenges facing local environments and livelihoods. This initiative creates a dedicated space for grassroots advocates to explore intersecting priorities from gender equity and climate adaptation to water security, food sovereignty, and ecosystem health. As we look ahead to the next 20 years, these integrated frameworks make the full scope of community needs visible, equipping local leaders to adapt, thrive, and safeguard their futures.

Photo Details
Partner: One Planet
Location: (2024) Loreto, Peru
Photographer: Pia Desulovich

The Next 20: Making the Invisible, Visible

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