The second Exchange Forum for the Art for Reconciliation project explored the affordances of artistic strategies for peacebuilding. This breakout session, chaired by Tori Durrer, University College Dublin looks at the way artists negoiate the practical pressures of working in art for reconciliation...
Analysing some of the immediate responses to the lockdown crisis suggests two possible and very different long term effects: either a re-enforcement or a re-evaluation of weaknesses in current arts, policy funding regimes and business models.
Analysis of the interviews has made clear the need to develop greater coherence between the intentions of funders and the experiences of artists in the sector.
What may at first seem like a false dichotomy, may well reveal a fundamental flaw in many current practices.
Photographs appear as representations of reality but can never be truly reliable witnesses. Indeed, as Colin Graham argues: ‘it is the incapacity of photography to provide a detailed inventory of the past or to prove anything’ that makes it such a powerful art form – ‘that makes it worth looking at’ (Graham 2014, p. 19).
Art for Reconciliation Exchange Forum September 2020
Artists working in societies emerging from violence have produced work that reflects, represents and responds to the conditions of conflict in ways that encourage the development of peace. However, this work is funded and evaluated using methods that fail to capture adequately the complex and long-term contribution of the arts to reconciliation.The second Exchange Forum for the Art for Reconciliation project, held on-line in September 2020, explored the affordances of artistic strategies for peacebuilding, through a series of discussions with artists, participants and funders. This opening Roundtable Discussion, chaired by David Grant, Queen's University Belfast explores key findings from Phase 1 of the research with artists, partispants and funders. It is followed by the Closing Summaries of the day.