Director's Message

Tsipi Ben-Haim with Nobel Peace Prize winner & Israeli President Shimon Peres

"What does peace
look like to me?"

Over 5000 kids from almost 100 schools and community organizations in 45 countries asked themselves this question while creating their Pieces For Peace at CITYarts workshops. 265 artworks representing their hopes are included in our Peace Book, our traveling exhibition, and online galleries. More countries are enlisting every month, joining a youth movement for peace.

Ambassadors for Peace: UN Ambassador of Madagascar H.E. Mr. Zina Andrianarivelo-Razafy; his wife and President of Women for Peace Elize Andrianarivelo-Razafy; Anna Birgis-Hannesson, wife of the Ambassador of Iceland to the U.S.; Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN; UN Ambassador of Malta H.E. Mr. Saviour Borg; UN Ambassador of Israel Ms. Gabriela Shalev; CITYarts Executive & Artistic Director Tsipi Ben-Haim; Consul General of Germany Dr. Horst Freitag; UN Ambassador of Germany Mr. Thomas Matussek

By now, we all realize that “Thinking globally and acting locally” is not a choice but the necessity of our times – we truly live in a global community.

Tsipi Ben-Haim, CITYarts Executive & Artistic Director,
Pakistani Amb. Munir Akram, Israeli Amb. Dan Gillerman,
& German Amb. Thomas Matussek at the U.N.

I see art as a powerful catalyst that can be used to express and transport ideas beyond borders. Therefore, CITYarts created the program Young Minds Build Bridges to embrace global projects like the Pieces for Peace Mosaic with Youth from Around the World. This project is designed to build bridges of cultural understanding by bringing American youth and their peers from around the world together to design and create tile-sized drawings, paintings, and poems on the topic of peace. These elements have been incorporated into a permanent, large-scale, outdoor mosaic in Harlem, New York, as well peace walls in Karachi, Pakistan and Tcl-Aviv, Israel with more walls in progress.

A traveling exhibition of selected works has been touring the world and gaining the support of presidents, UN Ambassadors, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. It was already displayed in the United States, Germany, Egypt, Israel, Spain and France, with more venues being planned for the future.

I strongly believe that it’s our responsibility as adults to give our youth a voice, thereby empowering them to express their concerns, their wishes, and their dreams. CITYarts projects such as Pieces for Peace show youth how to use their time and creativity to give back to their community while taking charge of their own future. Moreover, by collaborating with professional artists they gain pride, skills, and a sense of ownership, while experiencing the joy of giving and building self-esteem. We strongly hope that friendships will blossom across borders and last a lifetime.

Yes, we can trust our youth to build bridges of cultural understanding through art, joining hands in a movement for peace and creating a better world in the process.

Tsipi Ben-Haim

Executive & Artistic Director
CITYarts, Inc.