Peace Buildings (Rwanda)

Promoting connections between creative practice and peacebuilding with students in Rwanda

Curated by S.Downham-Lotto 

3D collaborations by Peacebuilding students in Rwanda

These Peace Buildings were collaboratively-put-together by 2nd year students of Peace and Conflict studies in Huye (Butare), Rwanda in the summer of 2023. One of several activities Sara designed around Visual Arts for Peace, the main objective was to build relationships within the group and practice creative problem-solving collaboratively. Each mixed-nationality group of 2-to-3 were provided with a pile of pre-cut, pre-decorated card shapes and encouraged to playfully build card structures, imagining them as spaces in which to facilitate peacebuilding. They were then invited to write words or phrases around their structures suggestive of their Peace Building’s ethos and function. 

Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda – all countries were represented and worked fantastically together. When asked for feedback and thoughts on connections (if any) with the practice of peacebuilding, this is what they came up with:

It widened my view of how different disciplines can combine to build stronger success

Teamwork

I liked sharing ideas

I like the strategies used

I love it. It’s a way to portray peace I hadn’t known before

Collaborative

Success comes from learning from mistakes

I learned to trust and be patient

Art contributes to peacebuilding

I now know the role of arts in peacebuilding

More trying = discovery

The visual arts are really interesting

Patience is needed all the time

Creative and innovative

Partnership

I really enjoyed being creative, leaving negative thoughts from my mind

Harmony and love

I loved the new ideas about art

Building peace is a process

I’ve enjoyed learning in an accessible way

I benefited from participation in a range of acitivities

The arts can convey a strong language that goes beyond language

I love the realisation that peace is linked to so many things in our daily life

For more art created by the peacebuilding students, see Sum of Parts … and go to the Project post -> to learn more about the Visual Arts for Peace project.