Prometheus Foundation (PF) had a remarkable year, awarding nearly $3 million to organizations and individuals promoting Ayn Rand’s ideas all over the world. Here are some highlights.
Students For Liberty (SFL)
After years of planning with SFL to popularize Rand’s ideas, we launched the Prometheus Fellowship program and awarded more than 70 fellowships, bringing students from all over the world to learn about Ayn Rand’s ideas. SFL also expanded the New Frontiers of Objectivism program, now covering all inhabited continents.
Prometheus funded Learn Liberty videos, featuring Objectivist intellectuals, several of whom also spoke at SFL’s major conferences in Europe, the U.S., and Brazil.
Ayn Rand Center Europe (ARCE)
Prometheus helped ARCE expand its flagship John Galt School (JGS) program, teaching 409 students from 14 European countries. ARCE held its first New Intellectuals Conference, gathering Objectivist speakers, JGS alumni, and active-minded young people from across Europe for intensive study of Ayn Rand’s ideas. ARCE also began work on Objectiversity, an e-learning platform incorporating study guides, articles, videos, quizzes, and tests on Objectivism.
Ayn Rand Center Israel (ARCI)
ARCI hosted its eighth annual Atlas Award event, with 120 companies competing for the award. The keynote by given by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. The event was widely covered by media.
Objective Standard Institute (OSI)
OSI taught 13 courses and reading groups on Rand’s ideas for flourishing and defending liberty. OSI’s summer conference had 400 attendees, plus speakers that included top Objectivists and classical liberals. OSI launched an internship program, awarding 14 internships to promising young professionals seeking intellectual careers.
Ayn Rand Center Ukraine (ARCU)
Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, ARCU continued its Objectivist Thought Leader Program (OTLP), training JGS graduates on how to teach Objectivism and to start campus clubs and study groups.
Ayn Rand Center Georgia (ARCG)
Irakli Iagorashvili launched ARCG and began JGS courses in cooperation with Students For Liberty. ARCG and SFL Georgia hosted a day-long seminar, with more than 150 attendees.
Prometheus on Campus (PoC)
PoC worked to expand awareness and knowledge of Objectivism across the Russell Group (Britain’s equivalent to America’s Ivy League schools) via campus talks, debates, reading groups, and seminars.
CEVRO Institute
Eighteen students took CEVRO’s eight-week, accredited course in Objectivism, and three others were admitted—two of them courtesy of Prometheus scholarships. CEVRO Founder Eszter Nova also established an accredited minor in Objectivism at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín’s Madrid campus. The program launched this fall with 21 students.
Ricardo Ibañez
In addition to continuing his Objectivism podcast Ricardo’s Time, Ricardo Ibañez held his first Objectivist conference, in Lima, Peru. More than 100 students participated in the two-day event focused on Objectivist principles.
Turkish Objectivist Network (TON)
TON held its first in-person conference and worked toward expanding into other Middle Eastern and North African countries, creating online reading groups and webinars to study Ayn Rand in both Turkish and Arabic.
Ayn Rand Center Holland (ARCH) and Ayn Rand Center Morocco (ARCM)
Anis Benhayyoun, who founded both ARCH and ARCM, ran reading groups on Rand’s works for about 60 regular participants. He also worked toward republishing some of Rand’s books in Dutch and printing excerpts in pamphlet form for distribution at universities.
Bruno Leoni Institute (IBL)
Alberto Mingardi’s Milan-based IBL introduced high school and university students to Rand’s ideas, encouraging students to read her works alongside such anti-totalitarian authors as George Orwell and Evgenij Zamjatin. IBL also published an Italian translation of Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
Free Market Road Show (FMRS)
On the Free Market Road Show, Prometheus director Craig Biddle spoke at six events in European countries, infusing Rand’s ideas into each.
Duncan Scott
Duncan Scott, with PF funding, continued long-time efforts to re-release the Italian film version of Ayn Rand’s We the Living.
Liberty International (LI)
In August, Angelica and Thomas Walker-Werth (fellows at OSI) spoke at the 36th annual Liberty International World Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia. The pair delivered mainstage keynotes, hosted two luncheons where they presented Rand’s ideas on the foundations of liberty, and participated in panel discussions with other speakers.
And lots more….
Carl B. Barney
June 16, 2023