Why Art for Peace
1. The act of making a decision and taking action in creating a work of art, no matter how small, uses the prefrontal and neo-cortex, the thinking brain. The artistic activity takes people out of using the basal ganglia/brain stem region, where territoriality and survival worry take place. Pain relieving endorphins, connecting serotonin and positive feeling oxytocin is released when creating art. Thus, people are in a different head and heart space than when there is only talking.
2. Creativity requires vulnerability, so people are automatically more open, often without even realizing it.
3. Expressing one’s inner experience and seeing the inner experience of someone else, increases trust.
4. Playing with each other allows people to shift rigid views.
5. Achieving the small visible goal of creating a work of art together is practice for achieving larger, more complex goals.
