More than 200 artists, musicians, writers and curators have signed up to a global art coalition promising to stage exhibitions and events confronting the rise of rightwing populism.

Leading figures including Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson, Ed Ruscha, Mark Wallinger, Cornelia Parker, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anish Kapoor and Tacita Dean have all given their support to the Hands Off Our Revolution movement, whose website was formally launched on Thursday.

One of the project’s driving forces is the artist Adam Broomberg, who said the movement aimed to channel anger and explore “the possibility of envisaging a future we want to be in. Just countering the cynicism is a really big thing.”

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Broomberg said participants were talking to many arts institutions, large and small, and the first details of exhibitions and projects would be announced in March.

The collective was a reaction to events such as Brexit, the continuing refugee crisis and Trump, Broomberg said. “What is important is that it is not just seen as America’s problem, or Europe’s problem, so we are planning shows in Mexico and Lagos.”

Among the first 200 or so supporters is Kapoor, who said artists were united in a mission to counter small-minded prejudice.

“Our art affirms our humanity and we insist on inclusion of all and for all. We call for action by people of good conscience to stand against the abhorrent policies of the governments that claim to represent us.”

Broomberg said it would be a communal arts effort, a sentiment echoed by Anderson who said: “Artists need to stay in touch with each other more than ever and to focus on making clear effective and artful plans for resistance.”

The coalition also includes gallery chiefs including Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel in east London. She said: “Economies and communities once flourished around jobs in industry, manufacturing and agriculture, jobs that are disappearing with no alternative in sight.

“Yet I have not heard a single politician put forward a credible strategy for devising inclusive, rewarding and sustainable forms of work. Which is why culture must step in.”

Artist Mark Titchner created an animated web banner for the project launch. He said: “No to the society that demands we all be alike. No to the coercion to consume and conform. No to the poisoned world that drives its people to flee into introspection and solitude. No to the dislocation, depression and anger this breeds.

“Art is for empathy. Art is for loving your brothers and your sisters and yourself. Art is for a chance to live.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yinka Shonibare MBE with his work End of Empire. The piece explores themes of conflict, empire and migration. Photograph: John Phillips/Getty

Yinka Shonibare said to do nothing “is to be complicit with intolerance and cruelty”.

The artist added: “We must all unite, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation, to oppose all forms of bigotry. Populism must never be a guide to our conduct, empathy should be our guide. As artists we bear witness and we must never be silent or be silenced.”

Broomberg, one half of an artistic partnership with Oliver Chanarin, said the project’s origins were in the classroom. He is a professor of photography at Hamburg’s University of Fine Arts, and he recalled going in to his class after Trump’s election and his students sitting in downcast silence.

“Somehow we decided to respond by writing a manifesto, channeling our despondency and anger and that’s where it started,” he said.

The movement had gained traction and momentum, he said. “The amount of support we’ve had has been amazing; people just saying thank you for giving us a place to put our anxiety and to share it.”