Combat Apathy is the intersection of Storytelling, art, and social justice
A PROVEN TRADITION OF ACTIVISM THROUGH ART
Combat Apathy has created a legacy of social justice projects across borders, cultures, and generations. We provide a vehicle for art and storytelling as an antidote to social injustice. Previous projects have included street art murals, public art installations, filmmaking, graphic novels, oral history projects, and multi-media storytelling researched across five continents and installed in seven countries. Now we enter the next chapter of becoming our own nonprofit as we begin to build the first Afghan Women’s Cultural Archive..
OUR ORIGIN
Combat Apathy was founded in Afghanistan in 2006 by human rights activist, artist, and author Shannon Galpin as an art and social justice partner to her non-profit Mountain2Mountain. She began working in Afghanistan in 2008 developing projects focused on gender and education and quickly expanding into sport and culture as she met young women artists, activists, and athletes and pivoted her work to support. Combat Apathy’s principles are rooted in Galpin’s first TEDx talk in 2009 about the power of storytelling to combat apathy.
Combat Apathy provides an umbrella for art and storytelling as a vehicle for social justice projects that include graffiti art, mural-making, filmmaking, photography exhibitions, sponsorship of Muslim women adventure athletes, and climate justice-inspired superhero graphic novels.
Combat Apathy’s work has remained rooted in art, storytelling, and culture for 13 years. Our non-profit builds on our experience and community to create the world’s first Afghan Women’s Archive.
Follow Us
Combat Apathy Projects
Views of the Himalaya exhibition 2007-2008
Streets of Afghanistan street art exhibition 2011-2012
Support of Afghan Women’s National Cycling Team - 2013 -
Co-founding Endangered Activism project 2016
Co-creator, co-writer, The Rosette graphic novel 2017-
WhatWeLose wildlife extinction mural series collaboration - 2018-2021
Ay Mariposa mural series collaboration 2019
Love Letter mural series 2019 - 2020
Hope Project - 2020
SayHerName mural - 2020
Black Lives Matter road mural - 2020
Geography of Memory project 2020-2025
Love in the Wild public art installations - 2020-2021
Afghan Women’s Cycling Archive - 2025 -
The Combat Apathy Board
Shannon Galpin - Founder, Executive Director
Trent Reed - Board Member
Kate O’Rourke - Board Member
WE THRIVE WHEN YOU GIVE.
YOU THRIVE AS WE GROW.
When injustice is given permission to grow, it grows relentlessly. Art and story gives voice to all of us who stand for fairness, equality, kindness, and a better future for humanity.
Support our efforts to combat apathy.
Donate to help fund the first phase of oral history collection of the archive through our new crowdfunding campaign on Chuffed.
Follow and support the project on Patreon to help build the archive and be part of the storytelling community: online and in-person storytelling and behind the scenes content.
The longterm support of partners and sponsors are needed. We can accept donations through our US registered nonprofit partner the Tawana Organization. Please contact us directly for more information.
THE LOVE GRENADES
The Love Grenade was created as a series of images based off of Galpin’s work in Afghanistan. The love bomb series launched in 2013 thanks to the design work of Kaitlyn Bailey. The Love Grenades represent radical love through concrete actions can change the world. They were first seen on the sleeves of the Afghan Women’s National Cycling Team jerseys.