Exhibitions +

Promoting Peace through Art

One of the themed workshops in MASK’s Creativity Clubs in Kenyan schools is Peace-Building Through Art. Students not only develop essential problem-solving skills by imagining innovative solutions for peace and tolerance, but also become empowered to see themselves as change-makers and ‘agents of peace’ within their communities, and developing empathy and multicultural understanding.

Students' voices:

• Through peaceful pictures, we promote peace, exchange ideas, and resolve disagreements peacefully. – Patrick Mwaura, 15
• The workshops make me so happy. They enable us to maintain peace. I learned to communicate ideas visually. – Naftary Maina, 15
• MASK helped me express ideas and promote peace between different tribes in conflict. – Benson Kinyantui, 13
• Being creative can help me educate communities and lead them to peace. – Peter Kimani, 17

One Year After the Conflict exhibition

In early 2008, MASK worked with child victims of Kenya’s post-election violence in displaced persons’ camps in Nakuru and schools in Laikipia. Many of these children had witnessed horrific events—people killed, homes burned—and were forced to hide in the bush, terrified and hungry for days. Some lost their parents and now live in overcrowded huts with relatives unable to afford food or schooling.

Amid these challenges, MASK organised peace-building art workshops where children expressed their trauma and hopes for the future through art. Their paintings reflected not only the violence but also the widespread famine and hunger that followed the conflict.

In 2008 and 2009, MASK’s One Year After the Conflict exhibition showcased these works at:

• the Russian Embassy in Nairobi, drawing national media attention. KTN’s youth program Str8up covered the event, while Kenyan vernacular radio stations broadcast children’s peace messages nationwide.
• UNESCO HQ during a UNESCO IIEP conference in Paris, opened by IIEP’s Director Mark Bray.

A book

In 2009, MASK published One Year After the Conflict, an art book documenting the exhibitions, which was presented to District Education Officers in Laikipia and Naivasha, as well as to Kenya’s Minister of Education, Sally Kosgei.

Integrating into syllabus

MASK collaborated with the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE, now KICD) to propose integrating 'Peace-building Through Art' in schools. The recommendation was accepted and incorporated into the History syllabus.