The Peace Project

Perspective Gallery at Virginia Tech is launching its next social practice exhibit to be installed in the gallery fall 2019.  Social practice art involves community interaction through dialogue and art participation to enact social or political change. The Peace Project is a dialogue about peace, both verbal and visual, where participants discuss peace and create writing or an artwork of that vision on a blank puzzle for inclusion in the Perspective Gallery 2019 exhibit. 

The interlocking puzzle pieces complete the whole picture...just as individuals working together create a whole community.  The project concept is a play on words (peace and piece) as it takes all of us to create world peace

 The 2019 installation will be a community collaboration representing a broad and individualistic view of world peace. 

Project Description

As global citizens, we have a responsibility to uphold kind and civil behavior and develop empathy towards one another and our natural environment.  How we do that and what that looks like is imperative for world peace.  The Peace Project is an artistic approach to building a peaceful and just world.

Objective: Participants will draw, paint or write their thoughts of peace using a stream of consciousness approach.  This method of creating art allows multiple feelings and thoughts to be expressed without self-criticism or editing in a free-flowing, process-oriented manner.  A gallery installation with contributions from people of all backgrounds will link multiple concepts of peace into a visual dialogue.  Creating art will connect community members to a common objective: recognizing what peace looks like to different people and learning to accept those differences.  Through this recognition of others’ needs we can work to build peaceful societies and environments. Artwork created will be donated to Perspective Gallery for a community created social practice installation fall 2019.

Resources on peace:

·         www.huffingtonpost.com/mona-shah-joshi/5-easy-ways-you-can-creat_1_b_9233970.html

·         https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/spirituality-and-community-building/promoting-peace/main

·         https://www.livestrong.com/article/1000409-can-kids-promote-peace/

·         https://peacealliance.org/empowering-community-peacebuilding/#collapse_0_empowering-strategies

·         https://www.psychology.org.au/for-the-public/Psychology-topics/Tragic-events-community-violence/Community-safety

·         http://ageofmontessori.org/montessoris-message-of-peace-through-education/

·         http://ageofmontessori.org/peaceful-child-webinar/

·         https://www.montessoriservices.com/ideas-insights/cultivating-peace-in-the-classroom

·         http://www.childpeacebooks.org/cpb/Protect/teachPeace.php

If you are interested in participating in this project please contact us. The Perspective Gallery Art Reach students will present the program at: 

• Floydfest in the Children's Universe July 25 - July 
• Blacksburg Farmers Market on Wednesdays weather permitting
• SEEDS Blacksburg Nature Center on Thursdays 3 - 5 p.m. this fall. http://www.seedskids.org/naturecenter.html