2007 Biennial Peace Art Exhibition and Award

Artist registration is now open for the 2nd Biennial Peace Art Exhibition and Award (2007) for year 11 students in Western Australia.

Download the 2007 conditions and forms

http://www.psychology.org.au/about/awards/art/

Registration forms and entry fees must be received by Friday 17 August 2007.

(Note: Forms and information have recently been moved from http://www.psychology.org.au/awards/art/ and from
http://www.psychology.org.au/aps/awards/1.4_31.asp to the URL above. Sorry for the inconvenience which was caused by circumstances beyond our control.)

Aims

• To inspire year 11 students with artistic talent to apply their gift to creative ways of communicating a key message about peace, whether peace within the self, the family, the community or the world.
• To encourage young artists, their peers, their families, teachers and the wider viewing public to consider ways of promoting peace in their own lives.

2007 Theme

Peace between Diverse Cultures

Conditions

1. Artwork must reflect the theme and objectives of the project.
2. Open to Western Australian school students in Year 11 in 2007.
3. Medium: two-dimensional media on paper, board, or canvas – e.g. graphics, painting, mixed media etc.
4. Maximum size: 100cm X 120cm, suitably mounted and ready to hang. The work need not be framed or glazed but must be provided with a suitable means of hanging.
5. Registration form and entry fee must be received by Friday 17 August 2007.
6. The registration fee of $15 must accompany the registration form, in the form of a cheque or money order payable to Psychologists for Peace.
7. Artwork, completed and signed Artwork Submission Form and Display Information must be delivered to the exhibition space, mezzanine floor, State Library of WA (formerly known as Alexander Library) on Friday 21 September 2007 between 3.00pm - 6.00pm
   Students must submit the Display Information on a white A5 sheet (21.0cm wide x 14.8cm tall), giving the artist’s name, the title of the artwork, size in centimetres, medium/media, and a 30-100 word account of the inspiration for their work, in 14 point Arial bold font. An example is provided.
8. There is a limit of 10 entries per school; selected by the school art department.
9. Before submission all artwork must be endorsed by the school art teacher using the attached form.
10. Only one entry per artist may be submitted.
11. Artists will be responsible for the delivery and retrieval of their own artwork to and from the exhibition space at the State Library of WA (formerly called Alexander Library).
12. Only individual artwork is eligible.
13. A pre-selection process may apply.
14. Exhibition space limitations may not allow all submitted artwork to be hung.
15. Psychologists for Peace will not enter into any selling arrangements with participating artists.
16. An independent panel of judges will select the work to be awarded the prize.
17. If, in the judges’ opinion, no entry is worthy of the award, no award shall be made.
18. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
19. Artists must agree to grant to Psychologists for Peace the right to make and use reproductions of the artist’s submitted artwork for peace promotion purposes (such as post cards, posters, website) with acknowledgement but without remuneration.
20. Before using glass or other reflective surface a good quality digital image should be taken of the work and must be submitted in .jpg format with at least one dimension being 900 pixels, on a suitably labelled IBM compatible CD or diskette. This digital image is to be submitted as well as the original work itself.
21. The student will retain the original artwork following the exhibition.
22. Artwork must be collected by artists or their authorised agent on Friday 19 October 2007 between 3.00pm and 6.00pm pm from the exhibition space at the State Library of WA (formerly known as Alexander Library).

Value
$500 for student and $500 for the school of the winning student, as selected by an independent panel of judges

Exhibition
Mezzanine floor, State Library of WA (formerly known as Alexander Library), Perth Cultural Centre Precinct, between James and Francis Streets, Northbridge

Exhibition runs Monday 24 September to Friday 19 October 2007

Opening hours
Monday-Thursday 9.00am-8.00pm
Friday 9.00am-5.30pm
Saturday & Sunday 10.00am-5.30pm
Undercover carpark: Perth City Council Carpark No. 11, enter from Francis Street.

Organisers
Psychologists for Peace, Western Australia
http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/pfp/awards/
www.psychs-for-peace.blogspot.com

Psychologists for Peace is a (not for profit) Interest Group of the Australian Psychological Society (www.psychology.org.au ). Its members are psychologists who are concerned about the prevalence of war and conflict in our world and are interested in applying their professional skills to issues relating to promoting peace and preventing war. This is the second Biennial Peace Exhibition and Award.

Sponsor
Psychologists for Peace WA gratefully acknowledges the State Library of Western Australia (http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/) for supporting this project by generously providing the exhibition space.

Further information
Manita Beskow phone (08) 9298 8485 or psychs.for.peace(at)gmail.com

Nikola McLennan phone (08) 9381-8551 or nikmac(at)westnet.com.au

Replace (at) with @ in email addresses above (SPAM-proofing).

Download registration forms
http://www.psychology.org.au/aps/awards/1.4_31.asp

What can you do for peace?

After the devastation of Cyclone Katrina in New Orleans – we have seen the consequences of the neglect of basic human needs for food, clean water, shelter, and health and other support services. Ensuring all humanity can meet these basic living needs is a priority, not only for justice but to keep the peace.

Even when basic needs are met, we will always come face to face with others who have different wants or perspectives. How we deal with those differences is what peace making is all about.
Without an effective means of ensuring basic needs are met and of sorting out our other differences peacefully – we will destroy our planet and each other.

To keep peace alive in our lives and so on our planet, it needs to be part of our conversations as adults, adolescents and children.

Impact of images of war and conflict
Images of violence and war bombard us all. Young people are being constantly exposed to media images and debate about war and conflict in communities and families. For some this causes anxiety and distress from overwhelming feelings of helplessness.

For others it is easier to become paralysed by indifference. While many of our youth hope for a world with less conflict and aggression, they are often at a loss as to how to make a difference.

What can one person do? What can I do? Just turn off the TV - or is there something else?

There will always be crises and conflict in the world, the community, families and for individuals. To love and understand each other is vital – now more than ever. Each one of us must see peace as a possibility and live our lives accordingly, achieving a balance between reality and idealism.

Educational and other initiatives can counterbalance pervasive images of conflict between groups, nations and within families and offer non violent approaches to sorting out differences. A range of peace promotion projects is being carried out across Australia by Psychologists for Peace, with a special new project in Western Australia.

Peace Art in Western Australian Schools
Just launched in 2005 is the Biennial Peace Exhibition and Award that aims to inspire artistic year 11 students in Western Australia to apply their creativity to communicating a key message about peace. At the same time they have an opportunity to win prize money for their efforts.
Psychologists for Peace WA is a group of psychologists who are committed to making peace a living possibility by encouraging a theme of peace in visual art through this Exhibition and Award, offered for the first time in 2005.

This is an opportunity to encourage young artists, their peers, families and teachers and the wider viewing public to consider ways of promoting peace in their own lives.

A prize of $500 is awarded to the winning student with a further $500 for their school.
The students’ artworks will be on display in State Library of Western Australia, Cultural Centre Precinct, Northbridge.

The State Library of Western Australia kindly made the exhibition space available as its contribution to this peace project.

Psychologists Peace
The Exhibition and Award is organised by the Western Australian branch of Psychologists Peace (formerly known as Psychologists for the Promotion of World Peace), a group of Australian psychologists who are concerned about the prevalence of war and conflict in our world and are interested in applying their professional skills to promoting peace and preventing war.

The group is committed to

• encouraging the study of issues related to the promotion of peace and prevention of war;
• acquiring and disseminating knowledge about psychological issues related to war and conflict;
• advocating and promoting the use of peaceful rather than violent methods for the resolution of conflict; and
• liaising with other professional groups with similar peaceful aims.
  

With the added help of a bequest in 2000 Psychologists for Peace groups across Australia develop their own local peace projects. In Tasmania a small grant program encourages psychology students to conduct peace psychology research projects on topics ranging from interpersonal to international relations.

The South Australian Psychologists for Peace group awards the authors of children’s books that feature a main character who resolves a conflict by actively choosing peaceful rather than violent methods. The winning books are recognised and publicised, so children have more peaceful role models.

A peace education officer works in Victorian schools to develop, market and promote peace education resources which are appropriate for primary and secondary schools and which improve understanding of non violent ways to solve conflict. Educational resources developed so far include children’s books and posters.

Responding to children about war
How do you respond to children when they ask about war and conflict? Psychologists for the Promotion of World Peace provides this guidance to teachers and parents.
Children and young people need adults to help them deal with news about war and conflict. Psychological research evidence shows that adults play a very important role in helping children and young people deal with the negative side effects of exposure to events that are traumatic or disturbing, such as media images of war and violence.

This is what we know so far. How adults deal with these events sends messages to children and young people about how to deal with disturbing events or negative emotions. Their responses can range from denial that the feelings exist, to ongoing opportunities to deal with these feelings and experiences.

This is not about taking sides (e.g. is the war justified?). It is about responding to its personal and emotional impact on children and young people.

It is best for schools to take a planned, holistic approach. Staff may need time and support to sort out their own responses before they can help students effectively.

Parents may also look to schools for guidance. At times of heightened conflict students will need regular times when they can discuss their thoughts and feelings about the conflict.

Conflict Resolution Model
An effective framework is a conflict resolution model. Rather than focusing on the issue of taking sides, this model enables us to move beyond the polarised debate leaders engage in. It enables us to dig deeper and find the wants, needs, worries and concerns of the different groups involved in the conflict. This approach provides young people with an opportunity to build empathy and understanding, and exposes them to the complexity and the layers of issues involved. It’s not simply black and white, right and wrong.

In using creative problem solving young people can see that there are many and varied ways of resolving any conflict – including their own. Using power and aggression is only one option. Looking at all the possible consequences of each solution enables young people to learn valuable life skills, to be more critical consumers of the images and propaganda of war, and to have hope for alternative ways of dealing with conflict in our future.

To support our young people, we have a responsibility to listen to their fears and concerns, and to provide them with guidance to empathise, problem solve, and critically evaluate the events in their world. Further guidance for parents and others who care for, or work with children is available from www.psychology.org.au

More information about Psychologists for Peace, an interest group of the Australian Psychological Society, is available at http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/pfp/

Based on an article by Psychologists for Peace WA and

first published Western Suburbs Weekly, Perth, 2005