Peace arts workshops: Poetry, songs, posters, buttons, comics

“Culture is the space in our national consciousness filled by music, books, sports, movies, theater, visual arts, and media. It is the realm of ideas, images, and stories -- the narrative in which we are immersed every day. It is where people make sense of the world, where ideas are introduced, values are inculcated, and emotions are attached to concrete change. Cultural change is often the dress rehearsal for political change. Or put in another way, political change is the final manifestation of cultural shifts that have already occurred.”

-Jeff Chang

​About the instructors:
Susan Chase-Foster
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
Mike McLeod
Geof Morgan

August 3, 2016 update: Our scheduled workshops have now concluded. Watch our Facebook page and e-newsletter for news about future workshops.

​Open to everyone age 10 and above. Workshops will be held at Whatcom Peace & Justice Center.

Why artwork about peace?

Rather than imagining war and violence only as far-off realities, we want to bring light to the ways that war and violence affect us locally.

The health of our people and environment are traded for war budgets that line the pockets of military contractors. Recruiters in our high school cafeterias sell teenagers the idea that their best shot at a life of dignity and purpose is enlisting in the military. Families bombed by the U.S. and its allies are not our enemies or strangers -- for many people in Whatcom County, they are relatives and friends.

Still, through taxes, we all pay for war and violence to be waged around the world. For Department of Defense in FY2015, taxpayers in the United States paid $505.28 billion, not including the cost of war. Instead, those tax dollars could have provided:

• 5.98 million Head Start Slots for Children for One Year for 10 Years, or
• 4.89 million Military Veterans Receiving VA Medical Care for One Year for 10 Years, or
• 674,809 Elementary School Teachers for One Year for 10 Years, or
• 15.21 million Scholarships for University Students for One Year for 4 Years, or
• 8.75 million Students Receiving Pell Grants of $5,775 for 10 Years, or
• 21.65 million Children Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for 10 Years, or
• 56.92 million Households with Renewable Electricity, Wind Power for 10 Years, or
• 14.42 million People Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One Year for 10 Years