Just back from presenting our Kosovo work at the Art, Peace and Conflict Conference at the Desmond Tutu Centre at Hope University in Liverpool, UK.  People from around the world presented their work linked to arts, peace and conflict. 

Our presentation, currently a working paper, covers our work in Kosovo spanning 1997 through the present. The work encompasses both community and grassroots-based fieldwork, as well as theoretical framing to illustrate how youth in specific communities, both rural and urban, processed their experiences during and after the protracted conflict and war whilst participating in arts programmes. The visual and performing arts projects were/are enacted across formal and non-formal venues such as refugee camps, community centres, museums, public schools, and cultural centres.

The paper discusses how the arts are utilised within four specific identity-based phases:
1. Existential-Conflict in medias res (≥ 1990s) - survival, basic psychosocial responses;
2. Processing and Healing (post-war July 1999) – transitions between trauma, uncertainty, nostalgia;
3. Freedom (immediate post-declaration of independence in February 2008) – dynamics in collective validation and esteem;
4. State building and community building (2008 and beyond) – transitions from euphoria to ambiguity and fear.


The entire event was uplifting, inspiring and a testimony to the power of the arts as a tool for healing and transformation. Stay tuned for more information and links to the individuals and organizations that presented over the 3-day event as well as to our final paper.

A member of ArtsAction Group attended the Aspen Institute's  "Policies for the Growing Refugee Crisis in the Levant" in Washington DC this week. According to UNHCR, the number of Syrian refugees has surpassed 2 million, with Lebanon receiving the lion’s share, followed by Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq.  Government and UN officials and experts on forced migration and humanitarian relief discussed the context and implications of the growing Syrian refugee crisis. Speakers included: 

• David Miliband, president and CEO, International Rescue Committee
  
• Dr. Najib Ghadbian, special representative to the United States for the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces
• Amb. Namik Tan, ambassador of Turkey to the US
• Amb. Alia Hatoug Bouran, ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the US
• Dr. Nabeel Khoury, senior fellow on the Middle East and national security, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (Impact on Lebanon)
• David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times
• Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration
• Mark Silverman, deputy head of Washington delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross
• Steve Inskeep, host of "Morning Edition," NPR