Research & Other Projects
Community Arts for Peace
The Community Arts for Peace Project is a space for networking, sharing and creating works of art that promote peacebuilding. Community arts include: theatre, music, dance, puppetry, visual arts, film, storytelling and any other art form you'd like to add to this list!
Goals for the project:
- to connect community artists (create a network);
- to share experiences of using the arts for peacebuilding;
- to create a tool kit of resources related to the field;
- to organize workshops, performances and projects that use community arts for peacebuilding;
- to create a space for dialogue on ways the arts can be used to build peace.
Update on the project's progress:
Participants at the local Toronto InterChange Day (September 2008) brainstormed many ideas on how this project group could move forward and decided to focus on finding ways to network and perform cross-cultural work together. International members are encouraged to join in these efforts.
Ideas included:
- posting short videos/ photos on the InterChange website and/ or on You Tube;
- matching up one artist's music with another artist's work (ie dance or movement piece) and perhaps creating a short video of the two pieces together;
- creating a compilation of video clips, poems, photos etc.;
- displaying and selling the local crafts form different regions of the world;
- hosting workshops and training sessions - sharing the work, photos, stories from these workshops with other InterChange members.
Some ideas for the next interchange symposium in 2010 include:
- holding skill-sharing workshops, art displays etc.;
- creating a performance with InterChange members from different regions and performing it one evening.
Contacts:
Canada (popular theatre focus): Sara Escott
Balkans (craft co-op focus): Gordana Sajinovic
How others could get involved:
If you are interested in this project please get in touch! We invite you to share your ideas, stories, artwork, lesson plans, facilitation techniques and performances about art and peacebuilding. Our goal is to find places where these various disciplines could involve cross-cultural collaborations. This collaborations could take many forms and could serve as a way to develop a network of community-based artists working for peace, while also helping to promote the work of our artists.