Peace-Building Program
Side by side, we work on peace-building through art and culture, to create a cohesive humane society, centered around talented and engaged young people.
Oboor Project
It is an artistic and humanitarian project that was implemented in 2021 in collaboration with the Union of Fine Artists in Homs. The project involved 15 specialized artists and 75 young men and women from the city of Homs, who used art as a means of expressing their life experiences over 10 years of war.
Primary Objective: The main goal was to bring together the people of Homs in a shared experience of emotions and human experiences through the art exhibition and its preparation. The artists worked together at the Harmony Center. The project aimed to bridge the diverse members of society—across age, thought, culture, and gender—by fostering a positive social interaction during the exhibition period. This allowed the audience and participants to understand each other’s struggles in a gentle and innovative way through art.
The Art Exhibition: As a result of the project, an art exhibition was held at the Zahrawi Palace in Homs, where more than 150 artworks were displayed, representing the participants’ experiences and highlighting different aspects of the war’s reality and its impact on individuals and society. The exhibition lasted for 7 days and attracted a large audience, with over 5,000 visitors.
Beyond Colors 1-2
Beyond Colors “1”
The Beyond Colors 1 project was launched in 2021, organizing a series of artistic and community workshops to establish a network of Homs residents interested in issues of peacebuilding and social cohesion. The project also aimed to attract community members interested in art and culture, employing art as a tool for peacebuilding.
Beyond Colors “2”
As a continuation of Beyond Colors 1, this project was launched in 2022, aiming to promote peace and coexistence among the youth of Homs and its countryside who share a love for the arts and creativity.
The project organized three training camps and three workshops, involving 150 participants from various ages, backgrounds, and artistic interests, including painting, music, photography, theater, and blogging.
The project sought to create a safe and open space for dialogue, where opinions, emotions, and experiences could be freely and respectfully expressed. It was based on the principle of effective communication as a tool for building trust, understanding, and solidarity among individuals and communities.
The final artworks were displayed in a six-day exhibition at Beit Al-Agha in Homs. The exhibition featured 80 artworks, including paintings, blogs, and photographs, addressing three societal issues—extremism, child rearing, and mental health—from the artists’ perspectives. A play and five monologues were also performed, expressing the participants’ experiences and emotions surrounding these issues.
The exhibition concluded with a musical evening, during which the music team performed a song specially composed and written for the project, conveying a message against extremism. The song was played for the first time at the exhibition’s opening, recorded in a specialized studio, and later shared on social media platforms. The exhibition attracted approximately 4,000 visitors from various segments of society over the course of six days.
Beyond Colors 2 Exhibition
Beyond Colors 3
It is a documentary art project aimed at highlighting the collective memory of Syrian society, particularly the people of Homs, who have suffered from the war and have their own unique experiences. Harmony helped them bring this story to the world by expressing it through various forms of art in an attempt to document and preserve these experiences. The project gathered 10 true stories, which were then transformed into diverse artworks, including painting, sculpture, design, musical composition, and literary writing.
This project is a continuation of the previous Beyond Colors 1 and 2 projects and began in 2023.
Project Phases:
Phase 1:
The project started with a training workshop titled “Preserving Stories”, which aimed to help the storytellers write and narrate their experiences in their own unique and professional manner. This workshop also served as a form of psychological relief for the participants. The workshop lasted for 8 days, during which 10 true stories were selected and approved, based on the participants’ experiences and lives.
Phase 2:
Specialized artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, and graphic design began working on the artistic outputs to translate these 10 stories into tangible works of art, attempting to convey these ideas and experiences in an artistic way. In parallel, music composers created ten musical pieces specifically for the ten stories.
At the same time, preparations for the exhibition “The Alphabet of Art and Humanity” began, including selecting and preparing the appropriate venue. Ten tents were set up, each containing the written story, a sculpture, a painting, a graphic design, and part of the musical score, along with decor that complemented the context of the story. Additionally, all the outputs were documented in a special booklet for the project.
Phase 3:
The exhibition opened with a musical evening performed by the Mosaic band, playing the musical pieces composed for the ten stories. The exhibition lasted for 5 days, during which visitors had the opportunity to read the stories, closely view the accompanying artworks, and experience the shared emotional journey with the storytellers. The exhibition attracted approximately 4,300 visitors.
