Our Vision

A world where all children, youth, and their communities have opportunities to participate in arts, culture and education as a means of expression for individual and social transformation

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Animation storyboarding in Kosovo 2023

Mission 

ArtsAction Group is an international community-based collective of arts educators, art therapists, artist teachers, and educators committed to facilitating arts and education initiatives with children and youth in conflict-affected environments. Through respect, open dialogue, and long-term cooperation, we work with local partners to create, produce and share these experiences with a broader global audience.

We believe the fostering of capabilities associated with the arts – from engaging in creative expression and reflection to big picture thinking – can provide people with the freedoms, abilities, and agency to respond to and take action in their daily lives.

Approach

Mural painting in Kosovo

• We believe the arts provide an ideal space for shared and ongoing dialogue towards individual and social  expression and transformation. 
• We approach each educational opportunity in the spirit of mutual respect and participation. 
• We build deep and long-lasting relationships with our hosts and communities. 
• We engage youth, parents, educators, artists, and local leadership as a way of creating meaning and relevance for all stakeholders. 
• We do not seek to dictate culture or curriculum, but rather to co-create innovative solutions to identified needs through the arts. 

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Areas of Specialization

Prototyping in Sri Lanka

• Sharing and fostering best practices in contemporary art and design education including STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) via an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning.
• Facilitating individual and community transformation via the arts, culture and education.
• Designing cross-site partnerships/projects/dialogue between children, youth, and community stakeholders in conflict affected environments
• Interactive exhibition development on difficult/controversial themes
• Dealing with the past and historical and identity memory

We achieve this through

• Direct experiences with artists, designers, artistic and design processes, and materials
• Big ideas and essential questions about art and human experience
• Inquiry-based and hands-on teaching and learning
• Inclusion and honoring of practice that is situation sensitive
• Cross-site partnerships/projects with children, youth and artists
• Experimentation, exploration, play, and choice making

Students at Camp Boujdour Primary School, Algeria.

Established in October 2013, ArtsAction Group is the culmination of decades’ experience living and working in conflict-affected environments across four continents. We actively seek partnerships within the communities we serve as well as with other regional, national, and international organizations engaged in the arts and the fostering of human dignity. We also link the individuals and organizations we work with to one another  - across real and imagined boundaries.

Check out our visualization of the work over time. Click on the link and choose 'guest' to view or scan the QR code below. 

Scan to view timeline on conceptboard

Excerpt ArtsAction Group timeline

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ArtsAction Group's symbol, Dwennimmen was chosen for its associated symbolic representation of strength and humility. It is a modified Adinkra symbol literally meaning "ram's horns," symbolizing that even the strong have to also be humble. Other interpretations include strength in mind, body, and soul, humility, wisdom, and learning. The color orange, at the center, is chosen for its rich symbolic history across multiple cultures, particularly its resonance with the work of transformation. ArtsAction Group recognizes the importance and centrality of these capabilities in our collective work and most especially honors their presence within the communities where we partner.