What do Bill Clinton, Bono, and Jamie Oliver have in common with an anonymous 27 year old Parisian graffiti artist J.R.? They’ve all won a TED prize that awards them with $100,000 and an opportunity to donate it to a humanitarian project in hopes of making their “wish” come true.
J.R. was reached by phone in Shanghai while on his latest photo-pasting mission. J.R.’s goal is to draw attention to the slums worldwide in effort to transform neighborhoods with his guerrilla art. In Kenya, his vinyl photographs have also doubled as waterproof roofing for the residents inflating the potential of art for change.
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The award draws a lot of attention to specific causes and the influential nominees attract other organizations and supporters to join the cause. Bill Clinton wished for improvements in the rural health systems in Rwanda and Jamie Oliver wished to alleviate the obesity epidemic, J.R. has not proposed a wish yet but we have a hunch it will be something like protecting artistic integrity in the face of rampant commercialism or a movement of empowering the powerless with philanthropic art.
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