Representations of war and peace: lessons from Bosnia and De Kalb.

Imet Josip Roca at a meeting of the International Society for Education through Art. Josip is a teacher in Zagreb, Croatia, and he told many stories about the horrors of war in his country. After I returned home, I received a letter from him inviting children in my town to participate in an international exhibition of artwork about war and peace, intended to historically document the ways children view war and peace at this time in history.

I usually teach art at the university, so I telephoned an art teacher in the local school district in De Kalb and asked if I could borrow his students so we could participate in the international exhibition, called "War and Peace in Fantasy and Reality." With permission from the principal, I taught in the public school for two days. I invited my university students to help me write the lesson plan and to teach it as well.

Chagall's Wishes for Peace

We began with a discussion of war and peace in art, especially focusing on two paintings by Marc Chagall. In a discussion of Chagall's paintings, the children discovered that Chagall had not only served as a documenter of war but also had incorporated symbols that showed his feelings about war, and what the students' felt were Chagall's wishes for peace. We discussed the war in Bosnia and uncovered similarities between their current war and the war Chagall documented.

I asked my students to take a "mental walk" around De Kalb, as it is now. Then, I asked them to imagine it as it would look if we had been at war for several years. I asked them to paint "what they saw in their minds." The results of their efforts were two paintings; diptychs of a single location in De Kalb during peace and at war.

A Historical Project

All of the students left the lesson knowing more about Croatia, symbols of war and peace, and very proud that they were asked to take part in this very timely and historical art project that demonstrated their desire for a peaceful world.