Exploring Constructive Change Through Color: A Coloring Book Collaboration Between Color Up Peace and Changing The Story

This ‘coloring book’ and exhibition is a result of a series of visual artistic transformations, adapted from the project Color Up Peace. Color Up Peace invites people from all over the world to submit photographs of what peace represents to them (some elements which inspire thoughts of peace, something which may symbolize peace, something potentially crucial for peace efforts based on the experiences of the photographers) and turns these photos into coloring pages.

Searching for peace: art, genocide and memory in 2022 Ukraine and 1992-1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina

Report of a Mobility Fund supported project on the peacebuilding aspects of coffee-making/drinking in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Outlining the development of the project from creating a podcast (“The Late Art Show with Berina and Lisa”) exploring the intersections of peace work, coffee-making and feminism in Sarajevo, and how the project changed with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Participatory Arts and Youth Activism as Vehicles of Social Change

This article by Henry Redwood, Tiffany Fairey, and Jasmin Hasić provides an analytical case study of a participatory youth-led filmmaking project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using the conceptual framework of hybridity, it critically considers whether and to what extent youth centred, participatory arts projects can facilitate the emergence of a positive hybrid peace.

Creative Expression and Contemporary Arts Making Among Young Cambodians

The Creative Expression and Contemporary Arts Making Among Young Cambodians research project analysed the creative practices and concerns of young adult artists (18-35 years old) in contemporary Cambodia. The project examined the extent to which the arts are being used to open up new ways of enacting Cambodian identity that encompass, but also move beyond, a preoccupation with the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979). Existing research has focused on how the recuperation and revival of traditional performance is linked to the post-genocidal reconstruction of the nation. In contrast, this research examines if, and how, young artists are moving beyond the revival process to create works that speak to a young Cambodian population. The research used NGO Cambodian Living Arts’ 2020 Cultural Season of performances, workshops, and talks as a case study through which to examine key concerns of young Cambodian artists, trace how these affected their creative process, and analyse how the resulting works were received among audiences. Find out more in the project report.

Connective Memories – Case study

Connective Memories is a participatory arts research project on the topic of Isangizanyankuru (meaning shared stories and memories in Kinyarwanda), codesigned, co-delivered and evaluated by 10 young people and 6 adult facilitators in Rwanda, in collaboration with the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace and Uyisenga Ni Imanzi.

Phase One Critical Review: Mobile Arts for Peace (Rwanda)

As part of Changing the Story's Phase One Activities is Rwanda this critical review and project reflection maps out the work of the project taking place in both public and private spaces in relation to the use of art in fostering peacebuilding in post-genocide Rwanda. The aim of the critical review is to record convergences, synergies and challenges within the Mobile Arts for Peace project (MAP). The critical review is comprised of a youth report, teachers report and an artist report and outlines the methodologies used, as well as the influence and impact of the project on each group.

Intergenerational dialogue, participatory video and perpetrator memories in Cambodia

This article reflects on a series of participatory video projects led by young Cambodians that sought to engage and explore complex ‘perpetrator’ memories with the aim of building dialogue across communities and generations. Working in partnership with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia through 2018, our participatory-video project sought to document the experiences and accounts of former lower level Khmer Rouge community members. We show how participatory video allows and produces interventions on memory that can renegotiate, augment and contest dominant narratives of past violence.

Post-Conflict Participatory Arts Socially Engaged Development

This book investigates the power of art to enhance human development and to initiate positive social change for individuals and societies recovering from conflict. Edited by Changing the Story partners Melis Cin and Faith Mkwananzi, the report features contributions from across the CTS network including Aylwyn Walsh, Scott Burnett, Joshua Chikozho, Willard Muntanga, Tendayi Marovah, Laura K. Taylor, Claudia Pineda Marín, Edwin Cubillos, Diego Alfonso, and Nub Raj Bhandari. This book provides an important guide to the role that arts can play in addressing epistemic injustice and contributing to social justice and human development. As such, it will be of interest to international development and arts practitioners, policy makers, and to students and researchers across participatory arts, youth studies, international development, social justice, and peace and conflict studies.

‘No-One Can Tell a Story Better than the One Who Lived It’

Academic article. Understandings of childhood and trauma are based on bio-psychological frameworks emanating from the Global North, often at odds with the historical, political, economic, social and cultural contexts in which interventions are enacted, and neglect the diversity of knowledge, experiences and practices. This paper by Kirrily Pells, Ananda Breed, Chaste Uwihoreye, Eric Ndushanbandi, Matthew Elliot, and Sylvestre Nazahabwana explores these concerns in the context of Rwanda and the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. We reflect on two qualitative case studies: Connective Memories and Mobile Arts for Peace which both used arts-based approaches drawing on the richness of Rwandan cultural forms.

Street Art to Promote Representation and Epistemic Justice: Book of Art

Street Art to Promote Representation and Epistemic Justice among Marginalized Rural Zimbabwean Youth sought to generate democratic space by giving the Binga youth an opportunity to tell the stories they value using graffiti art which was later displayed in exhibitions across Zimbabwe. The following Book of Art showcases the graffiti art created by the Binga youth and the process and idea behind each piece