Doves of Peace
Building on a project that was born in Colombia in 2019, the Doves of Peace aims to promote peace-building through the arts. Using a canvas dove as the backdrop, this project encourages participants to portray what “peace” and “community” means to them, whether that be through text or image.
We acknowledge that there are multiple symbols that represent peace, and we use the dove as a way to support the itinerant concept of this project. We have been engaging community members in this process of reflection using different methodologies and formats, such as mail-art, in-person collective art-making, and online supportive spaces.
Inviting community members to represent their aspirations of peace, the Doves of Peace have taken off to visit other latitudes across the globe. People in Colombia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the US, and Canada, and from all backgrounds and origins, have created some of the 500 doves that depict what peace means to them using words, shapes, and colours.
In 2022, we created an immersive experience for Nuit Blanche, Toronto’s annual all-night celebration of contemporary art, where we presented our project and visitors could create their own to be part of this ongoing initiative.
Are you interested in being part of this project?
Having to re-imagine new ways to remain connected during times of physical distancing, we brought the Doves of Peace project to an online and mail-art version.
Online:
Create a drawing of a dove that represents your idea of peace and community. Take a photo of your work and share it with our Facebook or Instagram community pages. You can also email it to us: community@musearts.ca
Mail-Art:
Connect with us on social media and send us your mailing address! We’ll mail you a canvas dove along with a self-addressed envelope for you to mail it back to us when you’re done.
Once you receive your dove, you can fill the canvas with your interpretation of peace and community. After you finish, place the dove in the self-addressed envelope and mail it— postage is included.
We invite you to take photos of your creative process and share them with us on social media!
