Open Hand Studios (OHS) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, Illinois, that partners with developing communities on creative media projects that nurture social justice. Our projects help developing communities independently protect, celebrate, and share their cultural heritage--while also challenging viewers to rethink their assumptions about others. Our partners generate sustainable economic value from these exhibits by directly reinvesting proceeds to meet pressing community needs such as food, clean water, and education. So what does that mean, exactly? Well, the destruction of cultural heritage affects millions of people around the world, but especially devastates developing communities. Since cultural knowledge is an important but often overlooked resource, drastically reducing this loss is a key way to help these groups compete in a globalizing world. At OHS we use visual communication such as film, online and traveling museum exhibits, photography, art, and web technology to tell stories that help people preserve and communicate what’s important to them. Moreover, communities reinvest the revenue this work generates to create a return on investment that makes an impact far deeper than the project itself.


Three Rendille women in Korr, Kenya

Echoing Green Names OHS a 2009 Fellowship Finalist
Echoing Green has named Open Hand a finalist in their 2009 fellowship competition! Echoing Green is a New York organization investing in startups that “develop new solutions to society’s most difficult problems.” We’re honored to be included among 22 groups from around the world that were flown to New York in late April for the final interview process. Fifteen winners will receive two years of organizational funding and support. Check back next week for the results. Read more at: www.echoinggreen.org/finalists

Entrance to House XVIII, Umm el-Jimal, Jordan

Report from Umm el-Jimal, Jordan
OHS staff spent January 2009 working in northern Jordan with the Umm el-Jimal Project (UJP)—an ongoing archaeology dig directed by Dr. Bert de Vries of Calvin College. Along with project staff, twenty undergraduate students, and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, we began a multi-year effort to integrate the ancient site’s cultural heritage with the modern community, including: a virtual reconstruction of the ruins, an online museum and research archive, and cultural heritage center to benefit Umm el Jimal’s area Bedouin and 6,000 local residents. You can check out the project’s history and current efforts at www.ummeljimal.org. Most importantly, OHS and local partners are cooperating on a water project that will restore the site’s ancient reservoirs to provide water for thousands of the town’s modern residents and their animals.