Youth Artists Make The Case For Peace

The untitled piece conveys, first and foremost, a sense of the warm, abiding joy when people come together arm in arm. The strength of the piece begins with how easily this joy is conveyed, through the simplicity of the figures. It’s all in the color and the gesture. The objects at the figures’ feet give context for the feeling. The assortment of weapons on the ground — weapons they have discarded — give a sense of the violence the figures have overcome. They’re symbols of conflict across place and time, from ancient grudges to today’s all-out wars. What would happen if we laid those weapons down? What could the world be like?

The piece is by Abigail Turinayo, a 16-year-old artist from Uganda, and it’s part of ​“Pieces for Peace,” a traveling exhibition of youth art from around the world up now at the Hilles Gallery in Creative Arts Workshop through July 14. So far, according to CITYarts’s website, the Pieces for Peace Project has grown to 12,000 artworks from over 1,500 schools and community organizations in 124 countries. The show currently up at CAW has toured the United States, Spain, Egypt, Germany, Israel, and Belgium, and has been the inspiration for seven different outdoor murals in New York, Pakistan, the U.K., Germany, Israel, Spain, and Belgium. CITYarts started its 50 States of Peace program in 2023 and has so far visited 18.

The exhibition works first and foremost as a collective group statement; it’s powerful to see the voices of so many youth from all over the world raised in one place. But the individual voices within that collective are worth exploring, too. From Pakistan, 17-year-old Samra Fatema writes, over a picture of a mother and child, that ​“peace lies in the eyes of an innocent. Peace lies in the soul of another. Let this innocent grow. Let’s not kill this mother.” Others find their way to peace through love of country and other humans. ​“Ethiopia is my country,” writes 9‑year-old Betlehem Demeke, over a picture of a flower. But also: ​“I love you Trishe.” Who or what is Trishe? In the context of the show, it’s not important; what matters is the emotion, beyond patriotism to people.

Others make their statement visually, as 12-year-old Balganette from Haiti does. The words are there to make the message clear, but the art itself conveys more than enough.

So, too, does a piece by 16-year-old Nicole Ahren from Israel, without using any words at all.

Hanging in the window of the gallery, like Buddhist prayer flags, are pieces made by New Haven-area kids in conjunction with the exhibition. The project is open-ended; inside the gallery, a table and chair have been set up with crayons, markers, and blank pieces of paper so that anyone can make more pieces for peace. The New Haven artists follow the path set out by the traveling show, but giving it a local flavor as well. In one piece, a pizza has been sliced to create a peace sign, with the logo ​“peace-ah!” written beneath it. Others rely only on the visual. In one, a hand makes a peace sign. In another, two hands are clasped together, a universal symbol of friendship.

The art is a poignant reminder of a simple truth. Children wishing for peace can start to seem like a cliche, even in the way adults talk to children who may be fighting. Why can’t you be friends? Why can’t you get along? Then, as we become adults, we learn that conflicts are complex. They’re about historical wounds. They’re rooted in spiritual, religious, economic, philosophical, cultural differences. They’re about prejudice among ethnicities. We read the news and, as the children around us grow up, we give them what feel like hard lessons in how the world actually works. Those people fighting one another can’t just lay down their arms. There are too many grievances to untangle for that, too much death already, too many raw, screaming emotions. When you understand enough, we say, you see why the conflict must continue. It’s too complicated to just stop.

But are we really right about that? Are the kids really wrong?

“Pieces for Peace” runs at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., through July 14. For hours and more information, visit CAW’s website. To learn more about the Pieces for Peace Project, visit the CITYarts website.