Visual Voices

Visual Voices is in its third year of operation and is seeking to scale up the success of its innovative arts-based peacebuilding approach through mainstreaming its methodology. This new phase will be centered around upskilling artist-collectives focused on or interested in a socially engaged artistic practice that thematically addresses peacebuilding.

In practice, this phase will provide access to and training on relevant materials like the Visual Voices Peace Education Curriculum for Young Artists, the Visual Voices Digital Graffiti and Storytelling AR App, etc. This hands-on approach, with coaching support, will allow the collaborating organizations to gain a strong understanding of the methodology. All training activities will be carried out by the core Visual Voices team.

The geographic areas of focus interest in this phase include Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These areas are of particular interest because Visual Voices aims to become a global peacebuilding movement. Visual Voices is headquartered in Cyprus and therefore has greater legitimacy in Europe and the Middle East, while greater legitimacy in other regions of the world will be established through collaborations.

The Elevate Prize fund would be used to cover personnel costs, travel, dissemination (international exhibitions, campaigning, advocacy), and financial support to participating artists.  

I come from Cyprus; an island nation that was divided by violent conflict. Like many other families here, mine was displaced. Although this happened before I was born, it had a powerful impact on my life. On my return home after years of living and working abroad, I very naturally gravitated both personally and professionally towards community peacebuilding. Still, I realized that many people find it challenging to embrace the true meaning of positive peace, especially when experiencing a lingering fear of conflict escalation and deep resentment. In response to the divisive conflict narratives and political corruption, I have dedicated myself for almost a decade now towards bringing communities together and planting ‘seeds’ for peaceful coexistence.

In my effort to contribute with a solution-oriented approach, I co-founded Visual Voices. The niche I have discovered is working directly with visual artists from communities affected by violent conflict who can very effectively express complex ideas through engaging mediums. These diverse perspectives and sincere reflections create a bright tunnel for those exposed to conflict narratives for their entire lives; to reflect, empathize, and open up to a critical perspective around their own reality.

I want to bring people together for a better future!

According to ICRC, two billion people were affected by conflict in 2018 and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program shows 121 cases of state and non-state violence in 2019. It could be said that a common factor affecting all those people and cases of violence are (context-specific) conflict narratives. Certainly, within Cyprus, everyone is affected by this through education, political discourse, family stories, and even physical division. These narratives are pervasive, and many times go unchallenged.

 Visual Voices recognizes conflict narratives as a critical problem that embraces a destructive role in causing and perpetuating structural, cultural, and direct violence. And therefore, addressing this challenge becomes an important step in the development of positive peace globally.

 Our methodology revolves around the creation and promotion of socially engaged art designed to instigate positive social change. Visual artists have incredible potential to address key community challenges through their processes of research, reflection, and expression that can clearly communicate complex ideas in accessible and engaging ways. Visual Voices supports them to disseminate their art, which ultimately stimulates larger community dialogue and contributes to peace-oriented social narratives. In simple terms, we create space for diverse perspectives to be shared and accessed.

What’s innovative is the combination of our practice and target audience. Essentially, we bring together peace education and talented young contemporary artists. When connected from beginning to end, our methodology is groundbreaking!

Visual Voices functions in many different capacities. As a testing ground for artists, a non-commercial artistic platform, a peace advocacy platform, a network, a connector, and much more. In that sense, what makes us unique is our capacity to adapt and strengthen our impact while remaining true to our core mission and vision.

What makes us disruptive is maintaining a balance between the art world and the peacebuilding world. We focus on pre-existing interests that draw people into much larger conversations, both internal (i.e. personal reflection) and communal. Those interested in peace advocacy are drawn into exhibitions and those interested in art are drawn into peace activism.

We are actively engaging with organizations, artists, practitioners, and communities from all around the world. Not just through our network, now reaching over 46 countries, but also through the Visual Voices AR App for Digital Graffiti and Storytelling that brings together socially engaged art and augmented reality in a way that promotes user-generated content and powerful stories of peace advocacy.

Our impact on humanity is bringing people together through art, for greater understanding, exchange, and respect. Our methodology can do this effectively because it is based on creating space, promoting reflection, then giving artists the means to reach a wide audience. The ideas shared come directly from community members themselves and present perspectives hidden behind conflict narratives. The thing about conflict narratives is that many times people don’t even recognize their existence, it’s simply their only reality. What is absolutely required to make a change is an alternative narrative capable of reaching very large audiences. Change at an individual level is essential but a shift in social narrative requires change in the majority.

This is where Visual Voices comes in. We support the creation of alternative, peace-supporting narratives through socially engaged artistic practice and it works. Every action Visual Voices takes is part of a larger strategy to achieve the impact we want to achieve.

We are effective because we have a long-term, focused strategy composed of independent yet complementary actions that support each other as a whole. The key steps we are taking beyond our core methodology are continued integration of outputs, creative dissemination, and establishing connections.