The One Millions Bones project is envisioned as “large-scale social arts practice" with a social justice focus. In a nutshell, the project model employs outreach, education, participatory action, social media engagement, and advocacy, leading to direct support for victims of conflict and genocide. I have tried to depict their implementation process / Theory of Change (ToC) visually as follows:
OMB Project model / ToC:
There are likely additional steps which this graphic doesn't include, and of course the flow of activities is likely less linear than this diagram would suggest. However, it serves to highlight some of the key elements that have contributed to the OMB project success.
Outreach, education and awareness-raising occur throughout the project at multiple levels: potential supporters, gatekeepers and participants receive education about the issues, about the specific project, about social change processes broadly, about the concepts and materials that will be used. Outreach and learning toolkits include cross-curricular lesson plans for pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools, support resources, activity checklists, sponsorship request template letters, press release templates, guidelines for photo/video archiving and sharing via social media, and guidelines for the installation event.
The outcome of the community educational workshops is participation in hands-on art making: specifically, creating the bones that will form the substance of the pre-planned public installation. Collective, physical engagement with the core symbol of the project also promotes relationship-building and discussion in the community, as well as deepening empathy with the victims of violence.
Fundraising is integrated into the art-making experience, with participants and sponsors making a small donation (initially $1) contributed for each bone that is created for the project. The individual contributions can appear small in comparison to the incredible losses of those being remembered, but they add up rapidly as project participation increases. Participants also come to realize that when small efforts are concerted and amplified, great actions and impacts can result.
The accumulated artifacts resulting from community engagement are then publicly and ceremoniously installed to attract attention to and raise even wider awareness of ongoing genocides and mass atrocities around the world.
Framing the installation is a carefully planned programme of public events designed to engage the hearts and minds of the wider society. To raise awareness of and to honor the victims and survivors of violence and genocide, the programme includes public speakers, performers, and rituals such a candlelight vigil. Public celebration of the efforts exerted and the funds raised by communities galvanizes the spirit of engagement. Then, in order to fruitfully channel the compassion and frustration generated among participants towards action for social justice, an advocacy day is staged to lobby government on specific issues related to international conflicts and support to victims.
The whole project is visually documented from the start, with high-quality photography and video being strategically deployed through social media to amplify the message, snowball wider support and participation, and create a visual archive that can be used by schools as learning resources for designing subsequent social action.
The results of the OMB project demonstrate that this approach to transformative community education and mobilization can be quite effective! I really admire what they have achieved and feel that the project stands as a model of good practice that is worthy of replication.
Summary
The One Million Bones project:
- Engages and mobilizes communities around a specific social justice issue;
- Uses art to creates a collaborative site of conscience to honor victims and survivors of violence and genocide;
- The public art installation raises awareness about and creates a visual petition against ongoing conflicts in the world;
- Participants don’t just talk, they take action (“Act Against Atrocities”): the installation is accompanied by a programme of speakers and performers, educational workshops, a candlelight vigil, and an advocacy day; bystanders are transformed into upstanders;
- Every bone created generates $1;
- Funds are donated to reputable charities that support victims.