Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, the International Day of Peace is observed around the world each year on Sept. 21. Shannon Takacs’ art students at Lincoln High School commemorated the occasion as part of a larger unit introduced by her art intern, Ryan Robinson.

Robinson is seeking a master’s degree in Art Education from FSU. Because of her own exploration of book-making and journaling, she was inspired to develop a unit for high school students that featured both.

“We spent two and a half weeks making the books,' she said. 'We cut out the cardboard, made the cover, and sewed them all together. It’s been a long process.”

Takacs added, “together we figured it out, what the requirements would be and how we’re going to grade it.” As Robinson’s supervising teacher, Takacs’s goal is to guide her through the real world scenarios of the art room. Part of that includes developing meaningful curriculum and assessment methods. Every Friday, Robinson provides students with a prompt for journaling in their handmade books. To highlight the International Day of Peace, Robinson asked students to contemplate what peace means to them. She shared information and resources like the online Global Conflict Tracker map, which is constantly updated to illustrate the impact of civil war, sectarian violence, and political instability. Robinson also asked students to think about conflict in their own country and community and how they could represent peace through art.

Students had access to a wide variety of art media. They also were challenged to select at least three different types for inclusion in their work. Tenthgrader Haleigh Maynard composed a tranquil outdoor scene. “I decided to use my own markers and I figured watercolor would be great for the sky because I like mixing the colors and making it vibrant,” Haleigh said.

Eleventh-grader Erica Driver made similar media choices.

“This is my third time using watercolor, I’m still learning,' Erica said. 'I thought I could do a rainbow because rainbows remind me of peace and of equality.”

Reflecting on the intersection of art and peace, Erica added “art is a universal language. You can look at a painting made by someone thousands of years ago and still know what they meant. You can still feel the message they were trying to convey which I think is really important if we’re trying to attain world peace.”

With similar sentiments, tenth-grader Victoria Emata shared “in my perspective, peace is something that is hard to achieve in this world because we have a lack of understanding with each other. Although we can’t always communicate our feelings properly with words, the feelings of an artist can be portrayed with colors, symbols, and lines. Every viewer has their own interpretation and, whatever the connotation may be, it’s something that can beunderstood by everyone.

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