Date of Award
5-2019
Access Control
Open Access
Degree Name
Creative Studies, M.S.
Department
International Center for Studies in Creativity
Advisor
Dr. Sue Keller-Mathers
Department Home page
https://creativity.buffalostate.edu/
First Reader
Dr. Sue Keller-Mathers
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF PROJECT
The Creative Path to Peace:
An Exploration of Creative Arts-based Peacebuilding Projects
There is a strong connection between creative arts and building capacity for peaceful transformation of entrenched conflict. While governments, warlords, militias and bureaucrats may control or dominate the overt peacebuilding process, artists of all disciplines work behind the scenes, in communities, cultural centers, refugee camps and war zones, building resiliency and peace from the personal level. This project explores how the creative arts stimulate and support peacebuilding: the nature and definition of peace itself, and the aspects of creative arts that render them powerful in the role of peacebuilding.
The substance of this project is an extensive literature review, to better illuminate both the current understandings of peace from social psychology, and the literature on creative arts applications and projects for building peace. By obtaining the views and experiences of a selection of identified creative arts groups working in the field, synergies and shared experiences are identified in more clearly defining the role of the creative arts in building peace. The driving question of the project is in what ways do hands-on, participative creative arts projects support peace building?
Keywords: peace, peacebuilding, creativity, creative arts, art, transformation, conflict
Recommended Citation
Clark, Mary L., "The Creative Path to Peace: An Exploration of Creative Arts-based Peacebuilding Projects" (2019). Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects. 293.
https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/creativeprojects/293
