Peace Studies Students in Rwanda Learn from Visual Art
In summer 2023, Sara ran a 2-month project in Rwanda – Visual Arts for Peace – in collaboration with Dr Kazuyuki Sasaki at the Center for Research and Action towards Sustainable Peace and Development (CRASPD), PIASS in Huye. Funded by the Turing Scheme, the project was a placement extension of Sara’s M.A. in Peace, Resilience & Social Justice at the University of Bradford begun in 2022.
Over the course of 2 x 2-day workshops, Sara worked with 32 second year Peace and Conflict Studies students as part of their module Practical Skills in Peacebuilding. Nationaliites included Burundians, Cameroonian, Congolese, Japanese, Rwandan and South Sudanese.
Participatory and experimental in approach, the aim of the workshops was to collectively explore and develop the power of the visual arts as an aid to peacebuilding practice and peacebuilding pedagogy.
The experience helped to build and bond relationships between the students (breaking with pre-conceived cultural prejudice). Evident also, through written and spoken word and creative output, students successfully grasped how the visual arts might effectively benefit approaches to and practice in peacebuilding. Together, we built a substantive number of connections between peacebuilding and creativity and how, as practices, they can benefit each other.
For more images, go to the Project page -> and Gallery ->
