Dear Friends,

“Thinking Globally and Acting Locally” is not a choice but a true necessity of our times. And since Art is a powerful catalyst to express and transport ideas beyond borders, CITYarts created the Pieces for Peace mosaic. This project is designed to build bridges of international 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 will be incorporated into a permanent, large-scale outdoor mosaic in a park in Harlem, New York.  A traveling exhibition is planned to start at the UN Headquarters and will also be displayed during the “Freedom Fest” of Flushing Town Hall in Queens.

Additionally the works are showcased on the CITYarts website.

I strongly believe that it’s our responsibility as adults to give our youth a voice thereby empowering them to demonstrate their concerns, their wishes, their dreams. CITYarts projects such as Pieces for Peace show youth how to use their time and creativity to give back to their community and how to take charge of their own future. Moreover, by collaborating with professional artists they gain pride and self-esteem. Over 200 creations from countries such as Fiji, Pakistan, India, Germany, Namibia, Israel and the USA are already displayed on our website; Submissions are still in process and will continue through September 2005.

In July, we will invite 10-20 young people from the participating schools and youth groups from around the world to work side by side with American New York teens.  Two weeks of work, cultural events and discussion groups are planned.

We hope to establish strong personal and artistic bonds among our participants that will ignite a life-long process of creative international artistic collaboration and that will contribute to change their communities and the world.

This project is orchestrated under our program of “Young Minds Build Bridges”.  It is an outcome of CITYarts 37-year track record of reducing violence and revitalizing communities through collaborative art projects. In 1995 CITYarts received an Award from Police Commissioner William Bratten, for: “assisting the New York Police Department in reducing crime among Youth”.

As I am celebrating 15 meaningful and exciting years with CITYarts, I would like to thank the CITYarts Board of Directors and Advisors for their outstanding commitment and support of the CITYarts team.  I would like to give a very special thanks to our three exceptional, creative, peace loving Honorees; Deepak Chopra, Ted Berger and Andrew Krieger, for helping us kick off the Pieces for Peace project.

Please help us help our future generation paint a Road Map for Peace.  I would like every child to be able to say, “I have helped create it. I am a part of it.”

Tsipi Ben-Haim

Executive & Artistic Director