The Art of Peace

On November 24-27 in Lviv, a workshop "Creating Peace Through Art" was held. It was structured with interconnected elements: analyzing and understanding the types of conflicts, their varieties and participants, as well as the behavior, motivation, and psychology of key characters; studying conflict management techniques and strategies for preventing violence through the use of creative methods, particularly through visual arts.

During the workshop, participants discovered that peacebuilding tools can be diverse, and art is an effective communication tool capable of influencing our perception of others and the world around us, reflecting its real processes and directly impacting them.

On the first day, young and creative participants started working on their artistic contributions. They were introduced to the basics of creating animation, working with ideas, scripts, lighting, and framing, and had their first attempt at animating posters. The posters' theme was dedicated to supporting people in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The second day began with the "Museum Tour" exercise, where the exhibits were collages created by the participants the day before. They were placed in the training space; passing by, participants analyzed the symbols used in the collages and tried to convey the main idea of the author. Discussing the tour process, participants noted that they could view problems/circumstances from different angles and independently influence the outcome of each work.

The session on creating Senkan poems was intriguing, continuing to reflect on the theme of supporting people in the temporarily occupied territories. Following this theme, exercises were conducted to develop creativity and create more than 25 poems reflecting the corresponding messages.

Most participants were also surprised to learn that animation is not just about creating cartoons, but also about social impact and the artist's interaction with the audience.

Significant attention during the workshop was devoted to dealing with conflicts, particularly drawing parallels between conflicts in society and art. Guided by the knowledge gained, participants started creating sketches for future cartoons: they developed a script and characters for the animation, formed teams, and created five animated works lasting 1-2 minutes, also on the topic of supporting people in the temporarily occupied territories.

The event was held in the frames of the "Peace Building and Conflict Resolution in Ukraine – Step Forward" project, implemented with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding programme zivik.