Explore We Make Art activities
The entire project consisted of several activities, including training courses, webinar, local actions, booklet creation and dissemination.
Training courses
The Peace of Art training was a comprehensive 6-day program designed to build a foundational understanding of peace, peace education, and conflict analysis among participants. It focused on both personal and collective experiences, enabling participants to understand and respond to conflicts at various levels—personal, societal, and international.
Throughout the training, participants engaged in creating a common space where they shared their backgrounds, identities, motivations, and challenges. This collaborative environment ensured that all participants aligned in their understanding of key peacebuilding concepts, including conflict transformation, advocacy, human rights, and non-violence.
By the end of the training, participants had gained valuable insights and tools to contribute to peacebuilding efforts in their communities and beyond. They were empowered to act as trainers and multipliers of peaceful values, enhancing their skills in designing, implementing, and evaluating peace education activities through art.
The We Make Culture training was a 6-day program that explored the potential of art as a tool for social transformation and collaborative creative processes. Participants worked on designing follow-up actions, utilizing digital art, and exploring online communication tools to amplify their impact.
A significant focus of the training was the development of the booklet Re:Act, a creative resource showcasing participants’ reflections and artistic contributions. The booklet captures the transformative power of art in addressing peacebuilding, human rights, and social change. It features thought-provoking narratives, and inspiring examples of artivism to motivate others to use creativity for advocacy and positive action.
The final part of the training focused on planning follow-up actions. Participants gained competencies in project management and drafted personal project plans in collaboration with peers and YPAN within the framework of the “We Make Art” project, setting a foundation for impactful local actions.
WEBINAR
The webinar on ARTIVISM was an educational session designed to create a space for participants to explore active citizenship through creative learning. The webinar emphasized valuing the identities of historically underrepresented groups and fostering a sense of belonging within local communities. Participants were guided to understand the roots of social inequality and encouraged to challenge injustice with principles of democracy, fairness, and equity.
The webinar introduced participants to the concepts of activism and “artivism,” highlighting their use as tools for peaceful, transformative social action. The session aimed to equip young people with the skills needed to influence their communities through art, enabling them to move beyond being passive observers to active contributors. Participants learned ways to express their emotions and concerns about social injustices and human rights violations through art.
Local Activities
Local Actions
The local actions within the We Make Art were designed to apply the skills and knowledge gained during the project to the specific contexts of the participants’ communities. Participants established local networks to support their peacebuilding efforts. Each partner organization provided local support, ensuring the peace efforts could have a broader impact.
Objectives of local actions were:
To apply learned skills and knowledge from the trainings
To promote active citizenship and social change through art
To encourage community involvement and participation
To raise awareness and educate on human rights and peacebuilding
Germany: Stickers for human rights
In Germany, the local action involved creating and distributing stickers to raise awareness about the lack of freedom of expression, especially regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. The initiative also aimed to highlight various global human rights violations and foster empathy.
Germany: Expressing Emotions Through Art
The session, designed for Ukrainian refugees, aimed to foster connection and build resilience through art. It began with a calming “Box” breathing exercise, followed by guided reflection led by an art therapist. Participants expressed their emotions by painting with colors representing their feelings, creating a supportive space for self-expression, connection, and emotional growth.
Germany: Peacebuilding through Biosphere Justice in the Black Forest
The activity aimed to explore the relationship between environmental conservation and regional peace. The Black Forest, renowned for its rich biodiversity and unique biosphere, provided an ideal setting for this initiative. The project sought to address how biosphere justice can contribute to peacebuilding efforts by fostering a deeper understanding of climate change and its impacts on local communities.
Greece: COLLECTIVE PAINTING WORKSHOP
The aim of this workshop was to bring together young local people from diverse backgrounds to foster connection and build resilience through collective painting. The participants, mostly university students aged with varying artistic experience, painted freely on a large canvas, drawing inspiration from their country’s socio-political realities and personal perceptions. The event encouraged social interaction, artistic dialogue, and collaboration, with participants expressing themselves individually and collectively, while enjoying music, sharing ideas, and discussing their feelings at the end.
Greece: Art and Activism 101
2 workshops open to the public, focusing on the theme of artivism and collective action. The aim was to introduce participants to the concept of artivism, encourage collective work for a common purpose, and highlight the strengths and resources of their community to address local concerns through art. The workshops explored how art can be used as a tool for activism, allowing participants to express their thoughts on important issues creatively, with no prior experience required.
France: Workshop on community building
The aim of this action was to foster social ties among residents of Thonon-les-Bains by creating a space for meetings and exchanges. In February, ballot boxes were placed around the city to encourage participation from people of various backgrounds. On the event day, a group of 9 diverse participants, aged 27 to 87, gathered for a meal, shared stories, and enjoyed a relaxed evening together, forming new connections across generations and cultures.
France: Perséphone - short film shooting
Persephone is a feminist reimagining of the myth, focusing on Persephone’s abduction by Hades and exploring themes of violence, love, rage, and healing. The film challenges patriarchal systems and highlights ecofeminism by linking personal healing with environmental restoration. Following the completion of filming, the project aims to organize debates, distribute the film at festivals, and host screenings with local associations focused on social issues and human rights, featuring a diverse cast and crew, predominantly women and from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Spain: Neighborhood Connections: Empathy and Urban Living
The action involved creating a booklet to highlight the importance of local support networks in working-class neighborhoods on the outskirts of Madrid. It explored how neighbors interact with each other, providing support with empathy and respect, and how urban planning influences these networks. The action included research, neighborhood walks, interviews with locals, and artistic expressions such as sketches and collages, culminating in a free booklet distribution to the community. A spontaneous presentation of the booklet sparked a debate on neighborhood networks, empathy, and urbanism, engaging a diverse group of residents from the area.