About

Peace is not only negotiated in conference rooms during formal political processes between political leaders. It is also shaped and sustained by culture, heritage, memory and the arts. Across Europe and its neighbouring regions, artists, cultural practitioners, activists, educators and local communities are creating new visions of peaceful and just societies. Yet their contributions often remain overlooked in conventional approaches to peacebuilding.

ARTPEACE, a Horizon Europe project, sets out to change that. Bringing together researchers, artists, curators, activists and civil society organisations, we investigate how grassroots artistic practices support violence prevention, conflict transformation and reconciliation, and how they contribute to sustainable and just peace.

Our Multi-Stakeholder Lab, organised around thematic and geographic focus areas, will bring together grassroots artists, civil society and youth actors, cultural institutions, researchers and policymakers to exchange experience, test ideas and co-shape knowledge together. The Lab will also inform our research agenda, activities and outputs, so that they reflect the knowledge and priorities of the communities, practitioners, and policy makers we work with.

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What we do

ARTPEACE combines interdisciplinary research with practical innovation. The project explores arts-based peacebuilding in ten countries across the EU and its neighbouring regions: Northern Ireland, Basque Country, Germany, Cyprus, Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Syria. We will:

  • Document and analyse grassroots artistic and cultural practices that contribute to peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
  • Develop a map and digital archive documenting artistic and cultural expressions of peace.
  • Support collaborative and participatory art-making initiatives.
  • Investigate the opportunities and risks of emerging digital technologies for cultural peacebuilding.
  • Facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers, practitioners, policymakers, educators, and cultural institutions.
  • Create innovative toolkits and resources for practitioners, educators, and political decision-makers.

Academic and Policy Advisory Board (APAB)

The Academic and Policy Advisory Board (APAB) provides strategic guidance on the scientific quality, ethical standards, practical relevance, and policy impact of the project.

APAB members bring experience from cultural diplomacy, international organisations, academia, and leading cultural institutions. Their advice helps ensure that ARTPEACE’s research, support activities, and policy outputs are meaningful and useful for scientific, artistic, civil society, and policymaking communities.

APAB members are:

  • Irina Bokova
    Ambassador, former Director-General of UNESCO, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria
  • Ellada Evangelou
    University College London
  • Patrick Föhl
    Director, Network for Cultural Consulting
  • Ketevan Gurchiani
    Professor, Ilia State University
  • Rachel Kerr
    Professor, King's College London
  • Fiona Magowan
    Professor, Queen's University Belfast
  • David Fernandez Puyana
    Ambassador, Permanent Observer, United Nations University for Peace (UPEACE) to the United Nations in Geneva
  • Osman Topcagic
    Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Farah Wardani
    Director, theatre collective Laban

Related projects and networks

ARTPEACE is funded under the Horizon Europe topic “Cultural Strategies for Peace: culture and creativity as catalysts for conflict prevention and post-conflict reconciliation” (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-07), alongside two sister projects:

CIRCLE
(Creative Interfaith and Restorative peaCebuilding in artful Learning spaces and placEs):

CIRCLE develops and tests an innovative model of EU cultural diplomacy that uses culture, religion, arts, dialogue, and immersive technologies to empower young people, strengthen social cohesion, and provide scalable tools for conflict prevention, reconciliation, and sustainable peacebuilding across Europe.

RE-SPHERE
(Shared Places for Heritage, Encounter and Reconciliation in Europe):

RE-SPHERE explores how shared holy places in conflict-affected and post-conflict regions can be transformed into innovative hubs for peacebuilding, cultural diplomacy, and social cohesion through interdisciplinary research, digital tools, community engagement, and evidence-based governance solutions.