Building expertise on arts practices for peace education and inclusion
By Oscar Odena
The Arts of Inclusion or TAI (http://tai.international/) is a network of academics and practitioners aimed at building expertise to critically assess the role of performing arts practices for peace education and social inclusion. TAI was established with the support of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council in February 2019, as part of their Global Challenges Research Fund. The grant was aimed initially to work with members across a range of Latin American countries and the network has grown ever since. Our work reflects local development priorities on peace education through arts engagement with individuals affected by Colombia's internal armed conflict, and Mexico and Brazil's gang war. The Principal Investigator is based at the University of Glasgow (Odena) and the Co-Investigators are based at Juan N. Corpas University Foundation, Colombia (Zapata), and at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico (González-Moreno). The Royal Society of Edinburgh is supporting TAI activities in Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council is supporting a related study on the role of music practices for peace education with a Co-Applicant from the College of Arts at Glasgow (Green). Together, we aim to build the foundation for sustained research that will address key issues of pressing concern in the field.
Group photo at the 1st TAI Workshop in Colombia, clockwise from top left: G. Howell, A. Cabedo-Mas, O. Odena, G. Baker, S. Figueiredo, L. Rico, G. P. Zapata, S. Niño, A. Rodríguez-Sánchez, M.E. Pinto and H. Vázquez.