Anis Barnat, Reflections on the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance Experience

Anis Barnat is a cultural leader with a career that bridges diplomacy, media, and the arts. He has worked with the French Embassy in the USA, Radio France, Sciences Po Paris, and Askonas Holt, where he represented international orchestras and choirs and built close ties with El Sistema Venezuela. As co-founder of El Sistema Greece, he champions community arts as a tool for social inclusion. Today, as Managing Director of the Community Arts Network (CAN), he leads efforts to enable and empower changemakers through the arts, forging unlikely alliances and advocating for culture’s role in tackling global challenges.

In 2024, Anis joined the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance as an expert, offering guidance and inspiration to artivists preparing to lead change with their creativity and lived experience. In the reflections that follow, he shares what this journey has meant to him, the programme’s impact, and his vision for its future.

Reflections on the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance Experiene

It is so wonderful and pleasing for me, to see this pioneering initiative entering its third round – to see its impact on the lives and work of increasing numbers of artivists seeking themselves to make a greater impact on the world. And its impact on those who are guiding it.

This is also fulfilling for me because the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance’s mission centres on two aspects that resonate so deeply with my own mission: the transformative power of the arts for social change and the empowerment of refugees and migrants. I’ve dedicated my energy, over many years, to these objectives.

This programme had an organic birth. PLACE Network, a CAN member, accelerates and leverages the innovation that people with a migration background bring to Europe. CAN enables, engages and empowers changemakers applying the arts for social impact. So, the idea for us to co-create a programme to support artivists with migration experience came naturally. It responds to such an urgent and vital need, and offers such great potential for real impact, we believed it could only succeed.

And it has been such an inspiring and enlightening learning journey for me since its inception. Helping to connect eligible artists in our global network and beyond to this opportunity (a key CAN objective), as well as trusted advisers to help guide the process and mentors to guide fellows in their own journeys in the programme.

In a dynamic setting like this, impact is a two-way street…or, actually, a multi-lane highway. It was an inspiring experience for me not only to observe the fellowship’s impact on participants and their own growth journeys but these incredible, diverse artivists – all doing such interesting and meaningful work – but also to note the huge impact on me. I learnt a lot not only from them and what they brought to the table but also about how it can shape programmes like this. And the impact they have on each other as they got to know each other and collaborate. Many joined not quite thinking of themselves as artivists or not fully grasping to the full potential of the arts in achieving their goals and left prepared for greater heights. Like alum Cedric Bisano (from the inaugural cohort), who we nominated for a prestigious Kofi Annan Changemakers fellowship…and went on to an incredible, empowering experience in that programme.

From our inaugural cohort to the upcoming third one, the team has been attuned to learnings gained from participants and the process – and responding to ways to deepen the experience and outcomes for fellows. I also personally got to know some of the PLACE team and friendships developed over time, making this very special programme not only a professional endeavour but also a deeper connection space, more human centered.

So, what might be useful for the next round of artivists to know about the Emerging Leaders Artivism Alliance? One thing – that is at the heart of our mission at CAN – is that networks hold incredible power and potential. And if you’re willing to be open to engaging others in them and sharing what you have to offer in return, you are able to harness more returns than you might ever have imagine. Just ask alums (no, seriously, try to connect with those who’ve been through it). And, if you are not already, also be open to experiencing the full extent of the arts’ power to take your efforts to the next level. This too could very likely take you to new heights.