The AGM Ideas Fair

You Belong in the AGM Ideas Fair!
The Ideas Fair at Amnesty International USA's Annual General Meeting (AGM) is a standing array of displays submitted by AI Local Chapters, Campus Chapters, Co-Groups, Regional Offices, exceptional individual AI activists, specialty Task Forces and Steering Committees, and staff. Are you on that list?

If so, please plan to exhibit at Ideas Fair 2004 in Brooklyn NY!

A display on Australia's Mandatory Sentencing Laws and their Human Rights implications.

The "idea" of the AGM "Ideas" Fair is to engage the viewer with "visuals": posters, photographs, graphs and charts, newspaper clippings, "how-to" recipes for successful events, video or audio tapes. Hundreds of members and AGM visitors take time each year to visit the beautifully- displayed materials, photos, and art work in the ideas Fair, a vibrant snapshot of AIUSA in action. The Press often uses the Ideas Fair as a colorful, arresting backdrop for photos and interviews of AGM keynote speakers and panelists. Plan to mount a display celebrating your group's, or your own, note-worthy human rights activities!

Ideas Fair exhibits can be interactive: you may post materials to share, or ask viewers to sign-up for later contact. Ideas from your exhibit could be carried home in hundreds of pockets to hundreds of pockets of local human rights activism here in the US and abroad! Think about sharing your group's newsletters or other publications at the AGM Ideas Fair 2004. Four by seven foot black foam core panels will be set up for participants to display photos, artwork, documents, flyers and other materials. To reserve space, please contact Ellen Moore at the Urgent Action Office: 303-258-1170 or email her at: emoore@aiusa.org

Highlights from Past AGM's

A display about the campaign against slavery and trafficking.

Past AGM Ideas Fairs have featured memorable exhibits too numerous to mention. A few described here might prove inspirational to you: In Pittsburgh, at the 2003 Ideas Fair, AIUSA's Refugee Program mounted the American Bar Association photo exhibit "American Justice Through Immigrants' Eyes"; Group #73, Ithaca, NY presented information about its newly adopted Prisoner of Conscience from The Maldives; the Middle East Coordination Group submitted panels on LGBT concerns in the Middle East, NGOs, Human Rights Defenders, and refugees in the ME and Women's Rights in the Middle East.

At the 2002 Ideas Fair in Seattle, Rita Maran, a human rights educator at UC Berkeley featured her college human rights curricula web site, which includes over a hundred entries useful for students looking for schools that offer human rights among their courses, and for instructors who want to share resources. AIUSA staffers Vivianne Potter and Louis LoRe displayed many of AIUSA's direct mail, planned giving, and Circle of Light pieces.

In Nashville, in 2001 Myrna Balk displayed artwork of Nepali women caught in the heartless web of trafficking and Josh Bloom shared his human rights Passover and ‘Tu B'shvat Actions.

Members of Somerville Group 133 created a life-size Human Rights Monopoly Game at the Providence, Rhode Island AGM in 2000.

In San Francisco in 1998 AC Martha Ter Matt introduced her local group's Prayer Flag Project and dozens, perhaps hundreds of AGM attendees created and displayed their prayer flags at the Cathedral Hill Hotel.

In 1997, Anna Uremovich, an intern at the AIUSA Archives at the University of Colorado, put together a wonderful display explaining and promoting the archives. In 1996, DC Latin America Advocacy staffer Carlos Salinas and DC area activists put together a breath-taking exhibit documenting human rights abuses in Columbia which were and are allegedly under-written with anti-drug funds from the United States. In the late 80's and early 90's, Group 122, Santa Fe NM, Children for Children exhibit included a powerful editorial from The New Mexican extolling the virtues of AIUSA advocacy letter-writing for children. The Urgent Action Program showed-off UA's in French and Spanish and simply-written Children's Edition UA's. Guatemala co-group member Heather Wiley highlighted the Indigenous Peoples' Campaign with large and exquisite photos of endangered villagers. Lisa Berg's "AI Publication Through the Years," was an eye-opener and Lisa gave away hundreds of reproduction copies of AI's first Annual Report! Jack Rendler, former AIUSA Campaigns Director and Scott Harrison, Urgent Action Coordinator, exhibited their photographs of Rwandan children from the UN Refugee Camps in Goma, Zaire. No idea is too modest or too grandiose.

Guidelines
Displays, audio-visual requirements, and content will be reviewed by the AGM Planning Committee for compliance with Amnesty International's mission and the AGM budget. No valuable, one-of-a-kind materials should be displayed and AIUSA is not liable for damage or loss.

Download the AGM 2004 Ideas Fair Registration Form (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).