Arts and Solidarity: Tackling Conflicts through Artistic Feminist Practices and Peaceful Conflict Mediation

Conflict is an inseparable part of our human experience — it weaves through our relationships, our communities, and our workplaces. When ignored, conflict can exhaust us, leading to burnout, alienation, and silence. Yet, when approached with care, dialogue, and creativity, it can become a space for revival.

Arts and Solidarity: Tackling Conflicts through Artistic Feminist Practices and Peaceful Conflict Mediation (Arts and Solidarity) is a project born from this belief. Co-funded by Erasmus+, it invites educators, artists, and activists to explore how art can serve as a gentle yet powerful tool for understanding and community building. The project aims to equip its participants with artistic skills in conflict mediation that are interdisciplinary, participatory, and rooted in feminist principles of empathy, inclusivity, and collective growth.

Throughout history, art has been a language of reconciliation. Especially in the aftermath of the great conflicts of the twentieth century, creative practices emerged as bridges between wounded communities.

While art in community peacebuilding has long been acknowledged, there remains a striking absence of creative mediation at the collective or institutional level. Workplaces, NGOs, educational institutions, and political spaces each may be subjected to conflicts. Arts and Solidarity seeks to rectify this gap, hence, to bring artistic and feminist mediation into the spaces where we work, learn, and organize together. Through a horizontal and participatory process, the project reimagines how we might approach conflict not as a disruption, but as a creative dialogue waiting to unfold.

The activities of the project include:

• In-Depth Research
  The journey begins with comprehensive research on existing literatureexploring the links between conflict, burnout, and well-being in EU-based organizations. Through live illustrated focus group discussions, educators, artists, and activists come together to share their experiences and reflect on the emotional and structural dimensions of conflict.

• Laboratory in Conflict Mediation and Artistic Exploration
  A structured training course introduces participants to core mediation principles while inviting them to experiment with creative and artistic practices. Following the training, a laboratory brings together twenty representatives from partner countries — educators, artists, and civil society practitioners to co-create new artistic mediation methods. The laboratory serves as a collaborative space for innovation, where participants transform mediation skills into creative practices using art forms such as performance, visual expression, storytelling, and movement.

• National Workshops (Austria and Cyprus) for Practice and Reflection Each participating country hosts national-level workshops to test and refine the developed practices.

• Creation of a Practice-Based Zine
  To capture and share the project’s insights, a Zine will be created as a living archive of stories, reflections, and best practices. Blending research findings with creative expression, the Zine documents how artistic mediation has shaped participants’ professional and personal perspectives.

• Interactive Online Conference (Online Worldwide)
  The final phase of the project invites participants and audiences from across Europe and beyond to an online conference that celebrates and extends the project’s impact. The event will showcase examples of artistic mediation workshops, present the Zine, and open dialogues on how creative and feminist approaches to mediation can be sustained within educational, cultural, and organizational frameworks.

Who this project is for

Arts and Solidarity is designed for people who work, teach, and create at the intersection of education, art, and social change. It brings together those who believe that learning, creativity, and care can transform conflict into understanding.

The project primarily supports professionals — educators, trainers, facilitators, and community organizers — who operate within both formal and non-formal learning environments. It reaches out to those whose work connects or wishes to connect art, human rights, gender equality, and civic engagement.

What We Strive For

At its heart, Arts and Solidarity seeks to redefine how we think about conflict and connection. It envisions mediation not as a technical process, but as a creative and feminist practice — one grounded in empathy, listening, and mutual care.

Through this project, educators, artists, and activists come together to co-create methods that restore and encourage dialogue. The project’s results — from its trainings and research to its Zine and conference — will contribute to a broader European network of practitioners committed to peace, justice, and solidarity.

Ultimately, Arts and Solidarity imagines a world where art becomes a site of reconciliation, where feminist values guide how we work and live together, and where conflict is no longer feared, but embraced as a moment of growth — an invitation to create, to connect, and to care.