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Students collaborate with Nonviolence 365 at the King Center.

Elyse Rowe

Unperturbed by the current news cycle and the defeats and setbacks of the past, young people are inherently positive. Their optimism and ability to see a better future is inspiring. One way that students can use their voice to make a difference is through “art-ivism.”

As we face unprecedented challenges, youth continue to play a key role in imagining, advocating, and creating new realities and paradigms. That optimism led to the launch of Seattle-based Students Rebuild. Part lesson in global citizenship, part art project, Students Rebuild is a whole-student approach to change the whole world from the Bezos Family Foundation. Each year, Students Rebuild identifies a key global issue and invites young people to use art to spark change.

Since the first annual challenge in 2010 following a devastating earthquake in Haiti, more than one million students in more than 80 countries and across the U.S. have raised more than $5,000,000 to support young people around the world.

Each school year, we issue a challenge, a critical problem faced by young people in the world, and ask students to respond. Educators can register a team and access free resources and curriculum for students in grades K–12.

This year, Students Rebuild is taking on the biggest set of issues and asking questions that young people are uniquely positioned to answer: What does the world need now? What should be done to meet this moment and opportunity to “rebuild” a better and more equitable world? Students worldwide are challenged to choose their own adventure by becoming “art-ivists” designing posters to amplify the messages they care most about. 

The 2022 World Needs Challenge is the biggest Students Rebuild Challenge to date. It will focus on serving five key areas: overcoming bias, clean oceans, humanitarian aid, hunger relief, and art activism. For every artwork created between now and June 3, 2022, the Bezos Family Foundation will make a $5 donation—up to $2.5 million—to programs meeting global needs.

For the World Needs Challenge, Students Rebuild will collaborate with seven organizations with a proven track record of addressing critical needs and impacting local and global change, including the Nature Conservancy’s efforts to address rising ocean climate; No Kid Hungry’s global hunger relief work; International Rescue Committee’s human rights work serving refugees; CARE USA and the King Center’s education efforts towards peacemaking and anti-racism; and Creative Reaction Lab’s programs to put art into action. 

Throughout human history, the arts have been used to inspire action, share ideas, stir emotions, and build community. Those are only a few of the reasons why art is at the core of everything Students Rebuild does.

And this year, Students Rebuild is excited to emphasize that core. The world needs art that will speak right to people’s hearts, motivating them to get involved, think critically, spread kindness, and make a difference where it’s needed most. Sometimes it’s a picture you see, a song you hear, a performance you watch—whatever the medium—art communicates our deepest connection and humanity. We must practice, share, and wield this immense power for good. We can’t wait to see what students create.

Elyse Rowe is director of communications for Students Rebuild.
elyse@bezosfamilyfoundation.org