Peacebuilding and the Arts

• The 2016 Election Comics and Cartoons — The following are collections of artistic comics and cartoons that comment on the positions of the candidates and the issues of the 2016 presidential election:
  • The Cartoonist Group — Collected from 50 of the best cartoonists and available to license for books, magazines, newsletters, presentations and websites.
  • US News
  • USA Today
  • The Washington Post

News

• Corporate sustainability messaging isn't working — it's time to look to the arts (The Guardian) — “Artistic expression, not scripted marketing will strike the chord we're missing. Businesses should take the plunge and invest. An industrial patch of former mill buildings by a canal may not seem like the best venue for a piece of outdoor performance art, and 'verbatim theatre' may not sound riveting. Yet when a group of actors led a performance walking tour along the towpath of Shipley in West Yorkshire last summer, local residents loved it… "
• Claudia Rankine: Why I'm spending $625,000 to study whiteness (The Guardian) — Claudia Rankine, the poet and author of 2014's National Book award-winning Citizen: An American Lyric, received a MacArthur "genius grant" in September 2016… "She plans to donate her $625,000 stipend from her MacArthur genius grant to found the Racial Imaginary Institute…, a 'presenting space and a think tank all at once' where artists and writers can really wrestle with race."

Arts

• LA Times: Art born of China's pollution (LA Times) — “Increasingly, artists are finding their muse in China's ecological mire. With photos, paintings, conceptual works and performances, they're piercing through the din of data, seizing the attention and imagination of authorities and the public.”

Resources

• Artists and Climate Change — Contributions from the artistic community to the vexing problem of climate change Today, interesting artistic work about climate change is popping up all over the world, in all kinds of venues. It shows up in opera houses and hip hop poetry slams, in established galleries and on-the-fly exhibitions, in off-Broadway houses and regional theatres. The goal of this blog is to track these works and gather them in one place.
• Film: "Before the Flood" with Leonardo DiCaprio — From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, "Before the Flood" presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet.
• The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts — The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is an intentional for-profit organization. They are exploring hybrid business models in an effort to break conventional non-profit dependencies, to engage politically, and to re-invest funding into the arts.
• REVERB — REVERB creates and executes comprehensive, custom programs to green the tour itself while engaging concertgoers to take action for the environment.
• Julie's Bicycle — Julie's Bicycle is a leading global charity bridging the gap between environmental sustainability and the creative industries.
• Arte Útil — Recently a group of artists, academics, curators and activists gathered in the north of England at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) to discuss the possible futures of Arte Útil.
• Theater of Witness — Theater of Witness is a form of testimonial performance developed by founder and artistic director Teya Sepinuck in which the true life stories of those whose voices haven't been heard in society are performed by the storytellers themselves as a way for audiences to bear witness to significant social issues.
• Oakland Arts Review — The Oakland Arts Review, a new and growing journal out of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Our ambition is to become one of the most prominent literary journals publishing undergraduate writers throughout the world — not just in the United States.

News

• Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi: Healing a wounded nation through music (CNN News) — More than just an entertainer, Oliver Mtukudzi is committed to addressing everyday social challenges, using his music as a vehicle to speak about the issues he's passionate about.
• Crowdfunding Campaign: In/Visible City — DAH Theatre, based in Belgrade, Serbia, has dedicated 10 years to the search for peacebuilding and bridging of different cultures, nationalities and groups through the project In/Visible City. This project, an innovative and inspiring approach to connecting differences (through an interactive play performed inside a city bus connecting culturally different parts of the city) has continuously grown in the past decade connecting cities inside Serbia, but also spreading the idea of tolerance throughout Europe.

Arts

• Healing Arts: A project in Uganda uses listening and collaboration to bear witness to the trauma of war — Dance, song, poetry, performance — it is the way of the Lango to make arts central to their quest for social healing, essentially coequal with water projects, nutrition, health care, and vocational education. The founders put together a five-year plan, which included using music, dance and dramatic storytelling for social change and healing of the people.
• A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone By director Marlene (Mo) Morris — A powerful film documenting the life and work of Edythe Boone, the San Francisco muralist best known for her work on the San Francisco Women's Building "MaestraPeace" mural, is grounded in current affairs surrounding racial justice.
• Film: "Interational Boulevard" — Rebecca Dharmapalan, a student in Oakland, California, was inspired to create a film to raise awareness about the problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Resources

• Life is Precious Radio Drama — A Radio Drama Promotes Public Health in Malawi — Moyo ndi Mpamba! (Life is Precious!) is an 'edutainment' radio drama programme that combines the power of entertainment with education to address key issues of malaria, family and maternal planning, neonatal and child health, HIV and AIDS, water and sanitation.
• Alternate ROOTS — Alternate ROOTS is a regional arts service organization with 39 years of history serving the southern area of the U.S.
• "Yes, Art and Culture Can Change the World" By Adam Horowitz, Chief Instigator, USDAC (GOOD Magazine) — Join with others in solidarity and flow, leveraging the power of our collective creativity to build a more just world. 
• Artist Protection Fund (APF) — In many parts of the world, artists suffer harassment, imprisonment, violence, and even death as a direct consequence of their unique role and power to advance free and creative expression, inspire others and provoke dissent. The Institute of International Education (IIE) launched the Artist Protection Fund (APF) to save the lives and work of artists who face persecution in their home countries.