Resource Of Open Minds (R.O.O.M)

The Resources of Open Minds (R.O.O.M.) program is a great example of how creativity can challenge the status quo. This is the program’s Annual Report 2024.

Ending in 2024, the R.O.O.M. program empowered creators across Africa and the Middle East to amplify diverse, alternative ethical and social narratives in societies where public space continues to shrink. This is the program’s final synthesis report.

Together with the National Arts Council of Zambia (NAC), Hivos organized a workshop to help creatives, artists and lobbyists think of new critical ideas for the sustainability of the arts in Zambia. Their views were also used in formulating Zambia’s National Arts Policy.

Vertical Atlas is a tool that explores our current universe of digital transformations through diagrams, interviews, essays and works of art by a diverse group of renowned artists, writers, scientists and technologists.

With this Feasibility Study, Hivos aims to better understand if creating a new program inspired by R.O.O.M. is feasible and strategic. The program would be designed to support the Freedom of Expression in Latin America in four countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala – with a special focus on gender and inclusivity of women, Afro-descendant makers and creatives from indigenous populations.

The R.O.O.M program developed this Financial Management and Sustainability Toolkit to support creatives in East Africa in planning for and delivering financially healthy enterprises.

This research explores the utility and viability of digital technologies in the production and promotion of critical audio-visual content by creatives.

This toolkit is a result of several interventions that have been carried out between 2017 and 2022 by Resource Of Open Minds (R.O.O.M) project at Hivos.

Mid-term Evaluation of the “R.O.O.M – Freedom of Expression in the 21st century” program.

New Ways of Working for Creatives in the COVID-19 Context.
A Research for Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.