Video: © 2018, Peace Dialogue, “ARENA: Summer School for Peace and Art ” Film
“You constantly hear and see so much about conflicts on TV that you forget it is all about people. Meeting representatives of different countries involved in conflicts and making friends with them during this Summer School made it possible for me to “humanize” the concept of conflict for myself. I realized how hard it is for people to live in conflict-affected regions,” says Anna Andreeva, an ARENA Summer School participant from Russia.
On August 2-12, the 3rd Summer School organized within the scope of “ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art” took place in Borjomi, Georgia. Around 40 activists from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, and Georgia participated in the final meeting of the four-year program initiated by Peace Dialogue NGO and its German partner OWEN e.V.
Alongside the main facilitators, experienced members of the ARENA network were also given an opportunity to co-facilitate the three workshops of the Summer School for Peace and Art – namely, forum-theatre, video, and comics. For most of the participants it was the first time being involved in the activities of ARENA.
The enrollment of new participants in the network serves the purpose of reinforcing both the network and the potential of experienced members and organizations engaged in peace-building activities in the post-Soviet conflict-affected countries.
In the course of the Summer School, during the first half of the working day the participants had the opportunity of raising various issues for discussion, such as conflicts, conflict transformation, gender issues, art in peace-building movements, violence, militarization, the use of memories and narratives for provoking conflicts and boosting peace-building efforts.
Generally, rising from the local strategies developed by ARENA members last year, a special space has been allocated to historical memories and gender issues.
“I can feel the growth of my experience and knowledge. I draw important lessons also from the theoretical part, yet the discussions and exchange of opinions already serves as a vital lesson for me. I did not expect that the exchange of experiences would bear such a continuous nature: we talk about gender issues and peace even after working hours, which is both unexpected and wonderful,” says one of the participants of the Summer School.
Download the Comic-Zine created by the participants of the Arena summer school. (PDF, 1.2 MB)
The participants utilized the acquired knowledge and skills in the activities of the aforementioned groups, as well as their own works of art, which also touched upon the issues prioritized in the strategies of the local teams. The methods and opportunities for utilizing the video materials and comics created during the Summer school in the local peacebuilding activities raised the interest of the community.
“I was very affected by the conflict in Ukraine when I saw a photo of a house damaged by the remnants of a Boeing. The roof was cracked by the objects dropped on it… I was shocked at what I saw… It was a horror. I mean, the photo had a huge impact on me. Everything you learn here may have an indescribably grand effect. It is already next to impossible to have a deep impact on anyone by means of mere words; to reach the emotions, you need to do it in a more comprehensible form with the use of elements of art,” mentions one of the participants from Russia.
At the end of the work meeting the organizers and participants discussed issues related to the future of ARENA and shared their own vision of further deepening the partnerships and strengthening the network.
For more details, please contact Peace Dialogue NGO at [email protected] or call +37432221340
Photos by Lyubov Martinets, Kyiv, Ukraine.
© 2018. Summer School for Peace and Art was held in the framework of the Project ARENA: Community Theatre and Public Art of Peace Dialogue NGO (Armenia).
The Project’s German Partner – OWEN – Mobile Akademie für Geschlechterdemokratie und Friedensförderung e.V.
The project “Arena: Community Theatre and Public Art” is supported by the zivik (Civil Conflict Resolution) programme of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) with means from the German Federal Foreign Office.
The Project’s media products have been created with the technical assistance of the Media Initiatives Centre NGO (Armenia).
