More info' on hosting art for Peace in your town
To begin, the Say Yes Team meets with your local member, council and community leaders and elders to present the concept, enter a dialogue and form up a committee to lead and organise the project.
Once agreement is reached on budget, local engagement and support, a date and venue can be established.
The Say Yes team provides every possible support to empower each local community to own and host the event including follow up afterwards.
Through a selection process run by the Say Yes Initiative (SYI) team local artists are commissioned to design a ‘masterpeace’ unique to the area and these artists are engaged to be the creative directors for the duration of the mural painting.
Local businesses are encouraged to sponsor and support the event by supplying goods and services and by advertising in local media.
Local marketing professionals are enlisted to promote and advertise the event. All relative marketing material and merchandising is supplied by SYI to maintain I.P. and message and brand consistency.
Neighbourhood and Community centres, local care networks and organisations are encouraged to promote the event through their own networks.
Elders (Older men and women who are known to be actively involved in their respective communities) are enlisted to hold space for people through deep listening and for the emotional and psychological support roles necessary for people to feel safe and held in loving, compassionate care. Another aspect of this facilitator role is to encourage, encourage and encourage understanding and connection between participants in order to build local support networks and ongoing community like connections… encouragement, building self esteem and a stronger sense of belonging is a corner stone of this project and local elders are best suited to hold this space.
Local individuals, organisations and groups that offer support, counselling, programs, retreats, workshops, processes etc. will be invited to display their promotional material and also to host presentations on their particular services and modalities at pre-programmed times during the event.
A support network of elders, therapists, counsellors, child sitters, pet carers, house sitters and temporary job placements (through a local job agency) where practical can be engaged to be the back up logistical support network.
During the event each individual canvas is for sale, some are auctioned, some gifted and an ongoing raffle to win a canvas is run to raise funds for the SYI family initatives support fund.
At the completion of each Art for Peace event a grand Finale (often catered & with entertainment) is held in a prominent local venue and everyone including dignitaries from the local community are invited. This is when the walls come down (metaphorically speaking) as all the individual canvasses are separated and those 'peaces' already sold or gifted are distributed. The remaining canvasses are put to auction and several are the prizes for the raffle.
If the costs for the event have been fully funded then all the proceeds from the grand finale can go to support localised family peace initiatives.
Each town, suburb or community centre that successfully hosts the Art for PDF Peace event receives a plaque commemorating the event. Official signage at the locale’s entry roads declare their ongoing commitment to maintain domestic and family peace and to enable the community support network to continue, grow and thrive. The signs will read something like:
“Exampleville Says Yes to Personal, Domestic and Family Peace”
On the anniversary of every event each local committee will be encouraged and supported to host a “Gathering of the Canvasses” which will bring together all participants, facilitators and organisers involved in the original project for a grand reunion.
It is to be a great celebration and family day where all the 'art peaces' are laid out in order, recreating the “masterpeace” in entirety. People can reconnect with everyone who participated in the mural painting, share stories of how their lives have been over the past year particularly if they have been sponsored by SYI and attended approved programs.
At the end of this reunion people are encouraged to take someone else’s canvas home with them for the following year to keep the community connections alive.
Step by step... brush stroke by brush stroke... person to person... community to community... town to town... city to city... shire to shire... state to state... nation to nation... Say Yes is becoming a global movement for personal, domestic and family peace.
Will your town be the next?