36 million people in the world are blind, three quarters from preventable or curable conditions.*
90% of the people affected live in low and middle-income countries and many cannot access basic eye care. This is one of the most immense and invisible global injustices; it is also solvable within our lifetimes. Simple treatments exist, such as cataract surgery or antibiotics, which should reach everyone who needs them.
Today, every 5 seconds someone in the world will go blind. Every one minute, a child in the world will go blind. Most people who are avoidably blind, die blind. It is time we stop this.
*Source: International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
Join Project Light and become a visionary for change
We are building a global force of sight ambassadors.
Join us, and stay updated on ways in which you can make the world see.
Alicia Eggert, All the Light You See, 2018
The Project
Project Light is a global art campaign by Peek Vision and Fine Acts. It aims to increase public understanding, engagement and support for the right to sight.
36 million people in the world are blind, three quarters of them – from preventable or curable conditions. We believe that everyone, everywhere, deserves access to good vision.
In September 2018 we opened in London a contemporary art exhibition called Shared Vision, which displays works across disciplines and mediums from sighted, partially-sighted and blind artists.
Ultimately, over the next three years, our goal is to mobilise multiple contemporary artists from around the world, and tens of thousands of people, to contribute and push for change.
By raising global awareness, we aim to drive local action and influence policy makers to provide basic eye care for their citizens. Nobody should become or remain visually impaired when this can be prevented or cured.
The Artists
Still from Light and Hope – Blind Women Orchestra, by Bahia Shehab
Bahia Shehab is a Lebanese-Egyptian artist, designer and Islamic art historian. Her book A Thousand Times NO was published in 2010. She is a TED Senior Fellow, and was selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women of the world in 2013. Bahia is a 2016 Prince Claus Laureate, and a 2017 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture recipient, together with eL Seed.
eL Seed is a French-Tunisian contemporary artist, working with Arabic script in 2 and 3 dimensions. He blends the historic art of Arabic calligraphy with graffiti to portray messages of beauty, poetry and peace across all continents. eL Seed is a 2014 TED Fellow, and a 2017 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture recipient, together with Bahia Shehab.
Sarah Sandman is a US artist and designer, and the co-founder of Public Displays of Affection, a collective of artists, designers, educators and organizers that engage in nonviolent direct actions. Sandman’s most current artwork has become a national movement: In Brick x Brick cohorts of women design brick-patterned jumpsuits and build human walls against Trump and misogyny in public spaces. She is a TED Senior Fellow.
Rachel Gadsden is a UK-based visual artist and performance artist. Her work explores themes of fragility and resilience, and the universal and deeply positive desire to survive. She is motivated to empower others to find a voice with which to challenge prejudices. Gadsden was awarded the National Diversity Award 2013: Positive Role Model for Disability.
Sammy Baloji is a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2007 Baloji was awarded at the African Photography Encounters in Bamako, Mali, with the Prize Africa in Creation, and the Prize Africa for Image. He is a 2009 Prince Claus Awardee, and a 2014-2015 Rolex protégé.
Georges Senga is a Congolese photographer who was discovered during the first edition of the Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi in 2008, by Sammy Baloji. In 2015 he was a fellow at WIELS Contemporary art centre, Forest/Belgium. Senga is 2015–2017 Fellow in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.
Photo: Georges Senga
See all artists on the Project Light’s website.
Project Light is further supported by artists Alicia Eggert, Safwat Saleem and Borislava Willnevermadeit, who all created designs for a series of promotional lenticular cards.
The Partners
Peek Vision is a social enterprise which works to bring better vision and health to everyone, by developing technology and partnerships to create sustainable access to eye care.
Fine Acts is a nonprofit exploring the intersection of human rights and art and its potential to catalyze social change.