During the war, art is a "weapon" too

Creative, bright and ambitious youth of Ukraine gathered in the wonderful city of Chernivtsi to learn together what role art plays in modern realities and how to make it an effective tool for communication and peacebuilding.

From August 31 to September 3, an educational and creative workshop "Creating Peace through Art" united more than 30 young and creative activists of our country. Participants represented different regions, had different scopes of activities and different degrees of involvement in the arts and cultural sector.

The workshop subject caused quite a stir and attracted the attention of young people. After all, in art we always find a reflection and reinterpretation of the realities of time. During the first day of the workshop, participants learnt the cases of using art to draw attention to urgent social problems and its impact on the audience using the example of Ukrainian art objects. It was interesting to discuss the possibility of propaganda and peacebuilding through art. One of the theses was "During the war, art is a weapon too"; as participants explained themselves, this opinion arose because the art that was born during the war will speak for us longer than we live and continue to build peace in the future.

During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to fully realize their potential and, through the creation of art objects, understand the subject of peacebuilding and the influence of art on it. One of the main tools participants learnes are the creation of "talking collages" and Loesje posters methodologies, that were later presented on an exhibition.

The last day of the workshop was devoted to the creation of animated videos on socially important topics. Animations are one of the creative techniques of peacebuilding. Everything starts long before the video appears on the viewer's screen - with communication inside a team, use of conflict resolution techniques, the ability to consolidate efforts and achieve the ultimate goal.

Summarizing the above, we'd like you to know that peacebuilding tools can be different: art is an effective communication tool that can influence one's perception of others and the surrounding world, reflect its real processes and directly influence them.

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.