Workshop description: Peaceful, harmonious communities are organic creations. A neighborhood is built from the collective work of all who live, play and work there. The “improvements” of outside entities rarely makes life better for the people living there. In fact, redevelopment often displaces the people who were once the soul of the community. The violence done to the community isn’t beneficial to anyone but those who make a profit.

This project is about collaboratively (re)making a vibrant community from resources that are already there. We’re just doing it on a much smaller scale. By working together and combining our unique ideas we’re waging peace and building community.

Participants will create their own model of a part of a peaceful neighborhood street. They can build a house, a school, a community garden, a storefront, a park or anything else one might find in a neighborhood. Each participant will be given a 12” x 12” foam board base on which they can build using found materials. Each base will have a road and sidewalk section along the front edge. Once the models are complete they will be displayed lined up as a neighborhood street on exhibit at the Waging Peace at the Plant Exhibition in May.

Hosted by artist Rei Meyers. For Rei, art is communication—between us and other people, our community, nature, government, our higher selves and the universe. Often holistic, subtle and ambiguous, communication through art often receives less value in a world that lifts up facts and data. However, it is the mystery and softness of art that is just as necessary for our souls and our society.

Rei’s art is an extension of his work to understand people and how we communicate and interact with the world, including each other. His work is simple, accessible, and often collaborative, with no gatekeepers. Creating art together is a revolutionary act of love. We need more love in the world.