Caux Art and Peace Encounters

Caux Arts and Peace Encounters

The new Caux Arts and Peace Encounters programme (APE) is a three-year programme to be rolled out in 2025 that will build on the significant artistic heritage in the service of peace of the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation.

The Caux Arts and Peace Encounters programme will bring together artists, change makers, academics, policy makers and experts.

Our goal is that by 2030, Caux is an established global convening center that champions the role of the arts and dialogue to inspire, connect, and equip individuals with the needed skills and qualities to nurture peace.

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Why launch this programme?

The Caux Arts and Peace Encounters are taking place in a global context where the challenges of peace and intercultural understanding are more pressing than ever. By bringing together key players on the political scene, well-known artists and visionary thinkers, this initiative will explore the potential of art as a vehicle for social transformation and conflict resolution.

The current levels of violent conflict are higher than at any time since the end of the Second World War. Global defense spending is the highest-ever recorded.  We need to look at different approaches to open up spaces for dialogue and resolve conflict non-violently. At Initiatives of Change, we believe in and practice the role of arts to prevent and transform conflict. 

The arts play a crucial role in societal transformation, offering individuals and communities empathy, hope, and the motivation to take action. By engaging our imagination, art encourages a shift from binary and linear thinking to a holistic experience. Various strategies have been developed to integrate art into conflict regions and fragile contexts, highlighting its transformative potential.

Art is part of the Initiatives of Change’s DNA. The Caux Palace has a superb Belle Époque theater and plays, particularly musical theater, have been performed for many years in Caux and around the world as vehicles to convey messages about the organization's mission and values. For generations they have had a broad impact on the public.

From 1997 to 2008, IofC organized an annual Arts Forum and launched in 2011 the “Caux Artist Program” in partnership with Renewal Arts, an international network of people who share the belief that different forms of art can be positive and powerful forces for change in personal lives and the world at large. It has hosted more than 70 artists from many countries until 2019 and was largely put on pause due to COVID.

Most recently, the Caux Foundation was renewing its work in this area through a charity concert by the world-renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili  which took place in May 2024 as well as through a Special Event during the Geneva Peace Week in October 2024.  

We are deeply grateful for Khatia Buniatishvili's support for this programme, which aims to foster dialogue, inspire change, and build bridges between cultures through art. Her own humanitarian values closely align with those of the foundation, making her the perfect artist to collaborate with for this launch.

Advisory Committee

• MICHEL ABOU KHALIL (VS, SWITZERLAND), PhD, Director of Swiss Made Culture, Crans (VS)
• SARAH NOBLE (CANADA/SWITZERLAND), Head of Global Engagement - Caux Initiatives of Change
• MARUEE PAHUJA (INDIA), Creative Leadership, Visual Artist, Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioner and an Arts-Informed Ecotherapy Practitioner 
• IGNACIO PACKER (SWITERLAND), Executive Director Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation
• ANNE-CATHERINE SUTERMEISTER (SWITZERLAND), Community Engagement Responsable engagement communautaire, arts et programmes de formation
• BARRY HART (USA), Professor of Trauma, Identity and Conflict Studies, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University 

How are the Caux Arts and Peace Encounters organized?

The first Caux Arts and Peace Encounter are planned for 13-14 May 2025 and envisaged as an annual event. The two-day session will bring participants from around the world to share their experiences on the role of art in conflict prevention and resolution, memory work, social therapy and the promotion of sustainable peace.

Caux-APE is a highly participatory platform. Through bilateral discussions, group work on specific questions and collective feedback sessions, the participants are invited to share and reflect on their experiences and that of others. With a focus on conflict-affected contexts, the forum promotes the exploration of artistic strategies and specific forms of collaboration, and the subsequent analysis of them in relation with the motivations and interests of artists and international agencies who work in such contexts.

The main venues for the Caux Arts and Peace Encounters will be our premises in Switzerland, the Caux Palace and the Villa Maria. With its breathtaking views of the Leman and the Alps, it offers a unique and inspiring setting.  

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What are the objectives of this programme ? 

The programme is aimed to foster exchange between government representatives, diplomats, artists, cultural activists and conflict resolution experts, who will work together to develop creative solutions to promote a culture of peace and tolerance. 

Through our Geneva office, strategically located at Maison de la Paix, we will leverage the extensive network of International Geneva, including NGOs, governments and UN agencies, to engage policy makers.

There is growing interest in the role of art in processes of societal transformation, in peacebuilding and in the empowerment potential of people affected by war. Art has the power to give individuals and communities empathy, hope and the energy to act. Moreover, by stimulating our imagination, art helps us to move from binary and linear thinking to a holistic experience.  A wide range of strategies for working with art in conflict regions or fragile contexts has evolved. By bringing together policy-makers, artists and experts, the Art and Peace Encounters programme offers a unique platform to drive change, stimulate creativity and foster mutual understanding.

Ignacio Packer, Executive Director, Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation

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Watch the replay of the Geneva Peace Week 2024 event "Arts and Peace Encounters" (18 October 2024)

Watch Kathia Buniatishvili's interview at the Caux Palace with Jacqueline Coté, President of Caux Initiatives of Change (recorded in May 2024)