Make Art for Peace
Create a peace “mini-zine” with us! Join this workshop to get creative and ignite your imagination to build peace.
War and many forms of violence are still widespread today and have been increasing in the last few years. High time, therefore, that more people gain knowledge about working for peace, so that we can turn the tide together.
What does peace actually mean? What does it look like? To build peace we need to answer that basic question. Many people view peace as the absence of war or armed struggle. This was called negative peace by one of the founders of peace science, Johan Galtung. It doesn’t address what must be present to live in peace, so we need to explore its opposite, positive peace. “Positive peace” is the presence of a set of beliefs, attitudes and structures that promote peace. The book The Peace Compass shows four directions: the personal, interpersonal, cultural-social and planetary levels of building peace. We will explore them in this workshop, engaging with each direction creatively.
Together in the workshop we will create a zine, a small hand-made art book. We will guide you through the stages of making a zine and provide you with prompts about peace to inspire your creative process. You will need a piece of paper, some scissors and a pen. You can also use more art materials like coloured pens and pencils if you want.
The organisers of this workshop believe that peace is only possibly through peaceful means. We will not address any specific conflict, or get into the many forms of violence that exist in our world. Of course, generally these need to be acknowledged, but the purpose of this workshop is to explore what we do want. We hope you can all come along in striving for this goal and co-create an inspiring meeting with us!
Donate what you can: The suggested donation amount for this workshop is €5-15 (or $ or £), but please feel free to donate more or less, depending on your situation and income. This workshop is open to everyone, so it’s also fine if you can’t afford to pay anything. Donations will go to Peace Power. Please use the following email on PayPal: nina.koevoets@gmail.com
Nina Koevoets has been a peacebuilding trainer since 2015. She is sharing the knowledge she accumulated over the years in her book The Peace Compass. She has also co-authored a study guide on Nonviolence, a children's book (The First Great Journey) and developed a cooperative game that teaches people about a culture of peace. She is from The Netherlands and has lived in Israel-Palestine, India, Sweden, Portugal and the U.S. and now lives in Greece. To read more about her work see: peace-power.org
Natasha Cross is a painter, muralist, and art teacher. She has had three solo painting exhibitions inspired by her travels around the world. Natasha has spent the last 6 years living and painting in Bolivia. She worked as a Project Manager for an Art Therapy foundation, leading workshops and art sessions for children. She also painted murals around the city of Cochabamba with international artists and groups of young people. Now back in London, Natasha is running online creative sessions.