Art can be an innovative practice to promote interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Through exhibitions, murals, or classes, individuals of different backgrounds can unite together and create art that transcends beliefs and clashes. A community or an organization can organize an exhibition on particular characteristics of a religion to present to other faiths, to engage in understanding, interfaith dialogue and coexistence. Moreover, local artists can work with faith-based communities, local residents, and college students to produce murals that reflect shared values and hopes for their neighbourhood, therefore bridging religious, socio-economic, racial, and generational divides. For people who cannot use words to express how they feel or those who are subject to oppression, art can be a peaceful way of expression and protest. Art products can be gathered in a free exhibition in a public area to raise awareness. Ultimately this practice pushes participants to ponder and evaluate their preconceived ideas and prejudices through art.

Art can be an innovative practice to promote interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Through exhibitions, murals, or classes, individuals of different backgrounds can unite together and create art that transcends beliefs and clashes. A community or an organization can organize an exhibition on particular characteristics of a religion to present to other faiths, to engage in understanding, interfaith dialogue and coexistence. Moreover, local artists can work with faith-based communities, local residents, and college students to produce murals that reflect shared values and hopes for their neighbourhood, therefore bridging religious, socio-economic, racial, and generational divides. For people who cannot use words to express how they feel or those who are subject to oppression, art can be a peaceful way of expression and protest. Art products can be gathered in a free exhibition in a public area to raise awareness. Ultimately this practice pushes participants to ponder and evaluate their preconceived ideas and prejudices through art.

Activity: Structure and Needs

This practice in general does not necessarily require a lot of resources, other than the necessary materials for creating art, and a space to exhibit the final works. The exhibition, for example, can be organized by one religious community to present its religious practices; it can also be a multi-religious exhibition on any given topic. To have a stronger impact the organizers should display the exhibition in the premises of different religious communities or in public places. The activity is simple to organize because it only requires the organizers to choose religious art or pictures and draft texts to explain the religious characteristics represented. It is important that the exhibition points out the need for religious coexistence, especially within the community in question. This practice is easily replicable and can have an exceptional impact in places where religious strife is frequent, as it aims to foster unity regardless of differences. Individuals could also draw and create their own inspiring art pieces, which they can later put on display in public spaces, to share their works and engage with other people of the community. During the exhibition, small activities are suggested in order to engage visitors in conversation and reflection around unity in diversity.

Instead of exhibitions, a community can organize collaborative projects where local artists and participants cooperate to create murals. These artists would work with high school students, community members, local universities, civic institutions, and religious groups to plan and implement mural projects around the city. Partnerships with local government also allows for high school students to gain job training opportunities as they learn to plan and implement said murals. Furthermore, interfaith art can be propagated through education. To implement an artistic interfaith peace education program, artists gather to create cardboards depicting people of different religious profiles or situations with different outcomes. Using those cardboards, teachers get students to think about these artworks together in class, then push them to debate their ideas among themselves.

Objectives: Impact and Focus

This is practice is promising because it challenges the prejudices that people may have on other religions, and leads to peaceful coexistence in multi-faith communities. The objective is to promote a tolerant image of a specific religion, which is achieved through impacting people’s views. This permits believers and non-believers alike to be respectful, to engage in interreligious dialogue and coexistence, and thus to create links between religious communities.  Depending on the nature of the exhibition the process of organizing such an exhibition can also lead to intra-religious dialogue and promote better understanding within, as various ‘branches’ come together to present a more united presentation of the religion. For example, in Cyprus, an exhibition on the island’s religious and ethnic division was hosted and had a large impact, since the artwork was displayed in public spaces where anyone interested can look, have a chat and even take part by adding their own pieces to the exhibition.

As for the artistic interfaith peace education, this promising practice allows teachers to engage in peace building exercises. Students get a safe space to express their ideas or stereotypes, engage in a debate to deconstruct them, and share their concrete lived experiences. Being of the same age, students are more likely to relate to the stories told by their classmates. Furthermore, art allows them to give a variety of interpretations, liberated from the idea that there is only one correct answer. Ultimately, this promising practice draws from different faith traditions as well as residents’ hope for their local community, using art to bridge religious, socio-economic, racial, and generational divides.

Field Data: Examples and Sources (Activity – Organisation – Location)

1.) Religious Exhibition – The Sultanate of Oman – Muscat, Oman

The Sultanate of Oman launched an exhibition to show the realities of Islam in Oman. They also wanted to demonstrate how different religions coexist in their country. The exhibition is composed of photos and texts which explain the pictures and all the aspects of Islam in daily life. Their exhibition was presented in more than 13 countries so far and has reached more than 5 million persons, including the websites visitors. The objective of such an initiative was to challenge prejudices and tackle discrimination of Muslims all around the world.

2.) Art Unites – Unite Cyprus – Nicosia, Cyprus

“Art Unites” is an initiative that promotes active coexistence through art. In Cyprus, though the island is divided in two by a border, the UN still maintains a neutral buffer zone for people from both sides to meet. It is in that specific area that Unite Cyprus Now, a Cypriot non-profit organization, decided to carry out all its events, including the art exhibition. On one side of the border, people speak Greek and are mainly Orthodox, when on the other side they speak Turkish and are mainly Muslim. Art appeared to be a unique way to gather and unite people. These drawings mostly advocate for reunification and discuss the lack of engagement on the part of Cypriots who have gotten used to the island’s partition.

3.) Building Bridges – Murals with a Mission – Cleveland, Ohio, USA

In Cleveland, Ohio, artist Katherine Chilcote founded Building Bridges “to create community based public art that fosters youth development and supports emerging artists, thereby public art becomes a tool for community engagement in a common spirit, through urban revitalization and beautification.” The first community mural, painted on the concrete base of a freeway that runs through the West Side neighborhood of Cleveland, was a collective effort of local residents and was themed “unity between neighbors.” Another mural, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, was a collaborative effort between Building Bridges and several campus religious groups. This included Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. The organization also works with the City of Cleveland to provide summer job training in the arts for local high school students, and many have gone on to form a strong alumni network after they graduate. While Building Bridges is not strictly an interfaith organization, its board includes an Interfaith Arts Committee and its founder considers art a pathway to interfaith understanding.

4.) Artistic Interfaith Peace Education – Umuseke – Kigali, Rwanda

The Umuseke organization in Rwanda is involved in peace building throughout the whole country. They train teachers to give peace building classes in different phases: deconstructing prejudices, building critical thinking, and building social cohesion.