‘Hope Hive’ brings people together to address human rights and social justice issues through the arts. It connects artists and thinking partners from around the world to build their capacity, expand their knowledge, and share their creative practice and experience at festivals and in their communities. The model focuses on fostering solidarity between participants and engagement with communities, creating a nurturing space for learning and exchange, and following a process based on care and healing.
This year, IMPACT is piloting the Hope Hive on the theme ‘Thinking Peace’, in partnership with DAH Theatre and The Festival Academy. This edition takes place with three artists matched with three thinking partners from January to June 2025, culminating in the Arts and Human Rights Festival 9-13 June 2025 in Belgrade, Serbia
Artists
Ivana Milenovic PopovicIvana is an actress, performer and manager in culture from Belgrade, Serbia. She is in the final year of her Ph.D. in Performing Arts at the Belgrade Dance Institute. She holds a Master’s degree from the UNESCO Read More
Chair in Cultural Policy and Management (2013) at the University of Arts in Belgrade and Lyon. She has been a member of DAH Theatre since 2008.
She has participated, performed, and held theatre workshops in numerous local, regional, and international festivals, and conferences in the fields of contemporary theatre, cultural management, intercultural dialogue, politics of memory, and peacebuilding through art.
Her research dives into contemporary theatre, theatre for social change, transdisciplinary theory of performing arts (focusing on acting), peacebuilding through theatre, women’s rights, and gender equality. As a dedicated advocate for human rights through art, she is searching for new opportunities to connect, network, exchange, and explore how art can serve as a powerful tool for transformation.
Katarina DrenjaninI was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2001, and spent my childhood with my family in the nearby city of Obrenovac. I later moved to Belgrade to attend the Philological High School, Read More
where I studied in the French department. After graduating, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. I am currently pursuing my Master’s studies in the same department at the same faculty.
Over the past year, I have dedicated myself to creating art objects, installations, video performances, and drawings as part of a series titled Home. This body of work explores my emotional, physical, and psychological experiences of home, family, and personal relationships, transforming them into artistic expression.
Beyond my academic studies, I have actively participated in events, workshops, and projects related to performance and visual arts. These experiences have allowed me to explore body memory, shared knowledge, and our collective perception of the world. I am particularly drawn to working within communities, seeing art as a way to foster dialogue and reflection. Whether through objects, installations, or performances, my goal is to create spaces for collective engagement—where we can reconsider our ways of living together in society.
Olga MurashovaI am Olga Murashova, a choreographer and movement researcher. I was born and raised in Pomorye, a northern region of Russia by the White Sea My dance journey began with classical training, but in my twenties Read More
, I discovered contemporary dance and movement as a way of exploring the world.
For years, I worked in theater and taught dance at an arts college, yet I often felt constrained by institutional structures that left little room for true creative exploration. Then, in 2022, the war changed everything. Driven by my anti-war stance and a deep longing for freedom—not just political, but the freedom to think, speak, and move—I left Russia. My journey took me through several countries before I settled in Belgrade, Serbia, where I am now pursuing a master’s degree.
I see movement as a language—a means to express and process the questions that history has placed before me. Through dance, I am searching for my voice and a new way of belonging in the world.
Thinking Partners
Ellada EvangelouBorn and raised in Cyprus, Ellada is an interdisciplinary scholar and arts practitioner. She has studied in Cyprus and the United States (BA in English, MFA in Dramaturgy, PhD in Theatre Studies / Cultural Studies) Read More
. She is interested in the relationship between theatre/dramaturgy and identity, and works in the intersection of aRtivism and scholarship in post-colonial, post-conflict communities. She is co-founder of Rooftop Theatre, collaborates with the IMPACT Project and Lemesos 2030, and a 2020-21 Global Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts. She was the Global Faculty in Residency at Gallatin, NYU and the Artistic and Executive Director of the Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2019-22.
Dessa Quesada-PalmDessa joined the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) at age 13 and has since devoted her life to theater as a performer, teacher, organizer, director, and playwright Read More
. Living in Dumaguete, she co-creates with members of her co-founded Youth Advocates Through Theater Arts (YATTA) and has worked at integrating theater in education, advocacy and development work and community building. She has conducted arts and peacebuilding trainings for the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute and as well as other workshops all over the Philippines as well as parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. Dessa has served as Head of the Committee on Dramatic Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and is currently a faculty member at Silliman University College of Performing and Visual Arts. She is the Vice President of the Women Playwrights International – Philippines.
Germaine IngramGermaine Ingram is a Philadelphia PA-based jazz percussive dancer, choreographer, song writer, vocal/dance improviser, oral historian, and cultural strategist and archivist Read More
. She creates evening-length pieces that explore themes related to history, collective memory and social justice, and designs and directs arts/culture projects that explore and illuminate community cultural history. She collaborates with artists from diverse cultural traditions and artistic disciplines, including jazz/experimental music composers, site-specific/informed choreographers, dance and vocal improvisers, African Diasporic culture specialists, and visual/media artists. Her recent writing is represented by a chapter she co-authored with Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim for an international academic publication on the arts and human rights. She collaborated with musician/composer/curator Alex B. Shaw and filmmaker Aidan Un on a media installation for the 2023/2024 group exhibition Bahia Reverb, sponsored by the California African American Museum. She is part of an international cohort of improvisational vocalists and movers in Murmuration, a new performance ensemble led by improvisational vocalist Rhiannon and Canadian dancer/choreographer Margie Gillis. Germaine’s work has been recognized with fellowships, project grants and residencies from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Leeway Foundation, Independence Foundation, Lomax Family and Wyncote Foundations, the Sacatar Institute in Itaparica Brazil, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, and in 2024 with a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Fellowship
Creative projects
Heritage: a play exploring women’s rights, generational trauma, and societal resilience (Ivana Milenovic Popovic)
Memory: collaborative art installation of objects related to war and conflict for local communities (Katarina Drenjanin)
Russian Bride: dance anthropology exploring the portrayal and identity of women in Eastern Europe, Russia and the world (Olga Murashova)
partners
DAH Theatre is a professional theatre troupe and research center. Working at the crossroads between theatre, dance, and the visual arts, through dedicated team work, for 33 years DAH creates daring artistic forms that inspire personal and social transformation
The Festival Academy (TFA) builds capacity and leadership among emerging festival leaders globally, with a focus on supporting under-served regions and conflict areas. TFA believes festivals are catalysts for social change, that foster collaboration Read More
between artists, cultural managers, and the broader civil society. It explores how festivals address issues like climate change, inequality, and conflict transformation, while promoting innovative leadership models and digital innovation. TFA’s activities include specialised in-person training and peer to peer exchange for curators/festival managers, as well as online programs. By offering tools for festivals to drive internal and societal change, TFA helps participants build sustainable practices
