~ Introduction
~ About the Program & Timeline
~ Eligibility & Selection Criteria
~ How to Apply
~ Selection Process & Evaluation Method
~ Confidentiality & Data Protection
~ FAQ
~ Further Reading
~ About the Program Partners
Transitional justice is traditionally viewed through the lens of legal and institutional frameworks designed to address human rights violations in the wake of conflict or repression. However, early advocates like South African constitutional judge Albie Sachs recognized the limits of this approach. As a key figure in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established following apartheid to investigate human rights violations and promote national healing, Sachs realized that legal tools alone cannot bridge the gap between formal proceedings and the lived needs of survivors seeking accountability and a nation in need of healing. He argued that culture, including poetry, cinema, theater, and music, is essential for imagining a new society. By confronting traumatic histories and preserving memory, artistic practices foster a form of restoration and repair that the law cannot achieve.
Within a European context, whose global entanglements are currently marked by multiple and overlapping crises, ranging from rising nationalism and democratic backsliding to climate-induced displacement and systemic discrimination, the limitations of purely judicial efforts are clear. This disparity is felt deeply by victims of war, but also within societies grappling with the enduring legacies of colonialism, environmental injustice, and other forms of systemic abuse.
To address these failures, AFIELD, Arts of the Working Class, and Framer Framed launch the Transitional Justice with Artists (TJA) Grant.
We are distributing six grants of €10,000 and awarding a six-month fellowship—which includes a residency in Amsterdam, publishing activities, and regular, thematic meetings online—to practicing artists, cultural practitioners or key members of initiatives addressing legacies of injustice and violence.
While we draw on the foundational framework of legal scholar Ruti Teitel, who defines transitional justice as the “full range of diverse processes and mechanisms used by a society to address massive past abuses,” the TJA program recognizes that the global discourse is evolving. Practices are expanding as communities take on the role of active witnesses, collating documentation and evidence of harms as they are being enacted, and there has been an expansion of the “justice imagination”, a term that refers to our collective capacity to envision more ambitious forms of repair and accountability.
At its core, the TJA program supports Europe-based practitioners and the communities they serve who have endured severe human rights violations. The program honors the lived experience of those who are victims or survivors, recognizing the complexity of their roles and upholding their dignity, while pursuing acknowledgement and redress for the harms suffered, whether through historical legacies or persisting violations.
We are seeking practitioners with initiatives that advance the process of justice through:
About the Program
Six selected practitioners will enter a six-month fellowship, divided into two cohorts of three fellows (Cohort 1: July–Dec 2026 | Cohort 2: May–Oct 2027). It includes:
Timeline
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must:
1. Be a legal resident–including those with refugee or asylum seeker status–in one of the following regions:
2. Be part of an initiative that has been operationally active for at least two years at the time of application, evidenced by a website, archives, reports, or visual documentation.
3. Be a practicing artist, cultural practitioner or a key member of an artistic initiative. Your initiative may engage with activism, or research, but artistic methodologies must be the central component.
4. Demonstrate community accountability. The initiative must work with and for a specific community, with evidence of transparency and shared decision-making.
5. Be available to participate in all components of the six-month fellowship, including the seven-day Amsterdam residency; contributing to an issue of Arts of the Working Class; and regular, thematic meetings online.
6. Demonstrate a will to actively contribute to an international network of cultural practitioners and peer initiatives working in this field.
Selection Criteria
Applications are evaluated by the program partners and an external jury based on the following:
1. Thematic relevance: Does the initiative specifically engage with the themes of transitional justice—truth-finding, truth-telling, memory, and accountability—to support tangible redress and emotional repair for affected communities?
2. Artistic and cultural qualities: Does the initiative demonstrate artistic excellence through clear creative practices and artistic methods appropriate for its design and delivery?
3. Community engagement: Does the initiative achieve meaningful community engagement and move communities collectively towards transformative outcomes?
4. Ethical integrity: Does the initiative embody the values of care and equity in its internal management habits, processes, and protocols to ensure that it does not replicate systemic injustices (invisible labor, structural inequality, inaccessibility)?
5. Methodological clarity: Does the initiative provide clear evidence of operational accountability and transparency, particularly regarding data-gathering, resource and project management?
6. Knowledge sharing: Does the initiative commit to peer exchange and knowledge sharing that benefits the global transitional justice community and the evolving discourse?
Applications must be submitted in English via this Application Form before 02 May 2026 (23:59 CET).
The Open Call is limited to the first 500 submissions. Once this cap is reached, applications will close, therefore we strongly encourage early submissions. To help track submissions, the number of received applications is displayed at the top of the application form.
Successful applicants will be notified of the outcome in writing by 02 July 2026. All unsuccessful applicants will be notified by 16 July 2026.
The selection process is carefully designed to be fair, inclusive, and representative of a wide range of perspectives. We prioritize applicants who face structural disadvantage, discrimination, or social, economic, and cultural marginalization. This includes women, LGBTQIA+ individuals and people with disabilities; initiatives emerging from Ukraine, European border regions, or conflict-affected contexts; as well as communities suffering long-term impacts of environmental violence.
It is structured into these core phases:
1. Initial Screening: From 15 April 2026, applications are be screened for eligibility and scope on a rolling basis. This phase continues, from 15 April until the deadline of 02 May 2026, or until the 500-application limit is reached.
2. Longlist Selection: Program partners review eligible submissions to form a balanced longlist of approximately 100 applications.
3. Jury Review & Shortlist: The longlist is evaluated by a jury of seven—comprising four partner representatives and three independent experts and practitioners from different transitional justice fields. Applications are scored (1–4) across six core criteria: Thematic Relevance, Artistic Quality, Community Engagement, Ethical Integrity, Methodological Clarity, and Knowledge Sharing, and a shortlist is collaboratively agreed upon.
4. Video Phase: By 25 June 2026, ten shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a brief video introduction (max 3 mins) within 48 hours. These assist the jury in the final selection phase and are assessed purely on content and clarity, not production quality. Should access, safety or disability-related concerns prevent a video submission, alternative arrangements can be made.
5. Final Selection: The jury selects the six Fellows through consensus-based deliberation.
To ensure impartiality, all jury members must declare any prior personal or professional relationships with applicants. In the event of a potential conflict of interest, the juror will remove themselves from scoring, discussing, or voting on that specific application, which will be reassigned to another jury member for independent review.
All application information, including personal data and initiative details, will be handled in strict accordance with GDPR and regulatory standards. Data will be shared between the three program partners solely for selection purposes, and all jury members are committed to protecting the intellectual property and privacy of candidates. Additional, explicit consent will be required should an applicant wish for their data to be used for research purposes or collaborations beyond this selection cycle.
Questions regarding the TJA Grant or the application process can be submitted via this FAQ Form before 08 April 2026.
Responses to the most relevant questions will be published on our FAQ page on Monday 23 March and Monday 13 April 2026.
Please note that the April update will only be provided if the 500-application limit has not yet been reached.
To understand the initiatives and methodologies we support, please review the case studies and findings from the AFIELD Seminar: Artists & Transitional Justice, and meet AFIELD’s 2024 Transitional Justice Fellows.
The TJA Grant is a joint program by AFIELD, Arts of the Working Class, and Framer Framed.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Visual identity by Sarp Sozdinler.
AFIELD is an international network of cultural changemakers anchored in the fundamental belief that artists are essential to the fabric of society, as thinkers and visionaries. By providing the resources and support, AFIELD believes in their profound capacity to lead transformational change in their communities and society as a whole.
Arts of the Working Class is a multi-lingual street journal on art and society, poverty and wealth, based in Berlin and internationally distributed. Published five times a year since 2018, it has created sustainable connections between artists, academics, urbanists, art institutions of different countries and languages, and vulnerable members of society. Everyone who sells this street journal earns money directly. Vendors keep 100% of the sales.
Framer Framed is a platform for contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory and practice. With the belief that critical and contextualised programming is best explored with an open door and low threshold, Framer Framed’s exhibitions and public programmes are always free of charge and resources are made readily available to emerging and established local and transnational communities, artists and curators to turn their own ideas into tangible realities. Framer Framed regularly commissions and co-produces new artworks and publications, organises international projects, and houses a bookshop and open reading space.
