Art can be a powerful tool in processes of social change and conflict transformation.... Culture defines and generates modalities of thought, paradigm and action as well as modes of planning, memory and communication.... They hold the potential to sustainably transform cultural violence and defamation, to develop people's personalities, to provide a framework for building relationships beyond one’s own groups and to increase future potentials.

All projects of Culture for Peace support local efforts for non-violent, civil and democratic empowerment while we connect local partners with communities and other change makers regardless of religion, ethnicity, caste, gender, age or political background.

In an insecure world where in many regions all forms of violence, human rights abuses and marginalization still hamper human potential to flourish, new and creative approaches to social change and conflict transformation are urgently needed

Art can be a powerful tool in processes of social change and conflict transformation. The unique power of aesthetic forms of expression, creative activity and communication contributes to tackle fixated, destructive patterns of thought and behavior. It can thus help to transform stereotypes and prejudices about the other, which can be deeply engraved in the collective memory of a group. Even in regions of relative peace such as Europe, politics of fear, blame and populism based on group-focused enmity is a real threat, especially in contexts of global crisis (e.g. financial and system crisis, fear of terrorist attacks). In order to constructively face such tendencies and to empower marginalized groups both in Europe as well as in post-war societies, Culture for Peace pursues a twofold strategy that includes local and international projects. At the individual level in intra relationship building, all activities aim at supporting self-confidence, awareness, mindfulness and resilience as a basis to contribute to social change and conflict transformation.

Mission Statement

With our largely voluntary active citizenship we aim to contribute to awareness changes grounded on an inclusive, humanist perspective that upholds values of appreciation of the other and self-esteem of the individual. In our view, transformed mindsets can then inform constructive intergroup relationship building and dialogue facilitation – a necessary condition for reconciliation and healing in peace building and the basis for mutual acceptance between various communities and social groups.

In our project work, we strongly focus on community-based needs and subsequent development of local capacities and dialogue structures.