Madonna has announced a grants program in coordination with Art For Freedom, the global digital initiative designed to fuel free speech, to address, respond and protest persecution around the world.

Madonna kicked off Art For Freedom on September 24, 2013 by posting Secretprojectrevolution, a 17-minute video she created with Steven Klein.  The film – ‘a call to action’ – originally premiered on Vice and remains downloadable on Bit Torrent. Artists are encouraged to submit their own work on artforfreedom.com in the form of video, music, poetry or photography to express their personal meaning of freedom and revolution.

As part of the Art For Freedom initiative, Madonna has launched a grants program to support individuals and organizations working to advance social justice. Over the course of the next year she will select one artist each month whose creative expression helps fight oppression, intolerance and complacency. Madonna will award $10,000 to a nonprofit organization or project of the winning artist’s choice.  All projects must be focused on a social justice issue and exemplify the values of Art For Freedom.

Madonna will select the winning submission each month with the help of a guest curator beginning with Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“I want to help give a creative voice to those who have been silenced and denied their human rights.  Art for Freedom is a platform that gives artists a chance to define freedom through their art. We have already received many incredible submissions. I am inviting all people to express their thoughts on the subject of freedom whether it’s describing specific persecution they have experienced, sharing how their rights have been violated and / or sharing their ideas creatively regarding fighting injustice,” commented Madonna.

Art For Freedom, launched in partnership with Vice, received over 1000 submissions in the first 48 hours of its inception. These submissions and the ones that follow will become part of the Art For Freedom platform and will be eligible for the Arts For Freedom grants program. Contributors can join the project by uploading original artwork at www.artforfreedom.com or tagging original posts #artforfreedom.