UNESCO CHAIR – Arts Based Methods for peace building with and for Children and Young People

I am delighted to be a member of the Unesco Chair led by Professor Ananda Breed, University of Lincoln. The chair was awarded in May 2026 and builds upon the Mobile Arts for Peace programme.

Working with partners across Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Indonesia and beyond, the programme brings together children and young people, educators, artists, policymakers and community organisations to explore how arts and culture can support peacebuilding and help shape education and policy.

Its work aligns with UNESCO’s priorities around culture and education, including the UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education, and contributes to a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals including quality education, gender equality, wellbeing, and peace and justice.

My particular focus in this project is working with colleagues to establish ways of translating and embedding the projects and learning from MAP within the Lincoln School of Creative Arts & Design curriculum: to engage and empower students to have agency and to make a difference. This will be done via module content, international projects and through the development of Translation Zone(s) pedagogical strand – TRANSCULTURAL ENCOUNTERS’ internationalisation at home initiatives.