The Peace Studio, Co-Founded by Maya Soetoro, Calls for Artists to Create Works of Peace

Given the urgent need to inspire and build peace at a time such as this, The Peace Studio, a nonprofit co-founded in 2017 by literary agents Todd Shuster and Jennifer Gates (Aevitas Creative Management) and activist, educator and author Maya Soetoro (Obama Foundation), is calling artists, storytellers, and media-makers around the world to apply by May 15 to create a peace offering for its 100 Offerings of Peace campaign. Each content creator selected will be given $250.00 for their work.

The Peace Studio will release the original work of each commissioned artist between June 1 and September 21 across a multitude of digital platforms. With mind towards the COVID-19 pandemic, creatives are encouraged to apply with content that exemplifies what peace means to them right now or brings attention to parts of their community that are in need of peace, encouraging people everywhere to take peacebuilding action to fill those gaps. Offerings may be in varied media across the disciplines of visual, literary, performing, musical, and spiritual arts. You must be 18 years or older to apply. Applicants from all countries are encouraged to submit.

Peace Studio recognizes and accepts that the classic peace symbol, and the movement it represents, held an important place in time. Our project hopes to find fresh, contemporary peace offerings that will inspire people everywhere to see 'peace' as more than just the absence of violence or war but something that can be manifested in our daily lives through the actions we take to pursue justice and help others facing hardship or oppression.

This project has been made possible through initial support from The Fetzer Institute and our campaign launch media partner NowThis (see feature here). Initial project advisors include former governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick; Founder of Fork Films and Peace is Loud, Abigail Disney; TED fellow and former COO of Tina Brown Live Media, Robert Clauser; Executive Producer of Activism at Anonymous Content, Bedonna Smith; Aevitas Creative Management; The U.S. Institute of Peace; Alliance for Peacebuilding; and Peace First. If interested, please email info@thepeacestudio.org for more information.