Festival of Applied Imagination: Positive Peace

About

Take part in this lively discussion and debate in which TV journalist Sebastian Krueger interviews peace negotiator David Nyheim, artist Heather Ackroyd and curator Marina Wallace about Artraker, a project that dares to ask what role art can play in bringing resolution to bitter, violent and apparently irreconcilable global conflicts.

Positive Peace is part of the Festival of Applied Imagination, taking place at Central Saint Martins on 9 and 10 December. Through a series of participatory events and performances, students and change-makers from different sectors will demonstrate how they are working to effect change in their world. All events are free and open to members of the public.

Sebastian Krüger is a television journalist and filmmaker who worked as public affairs consultant in London and Paris before becoming a journalist, editor and director for German Public Television in 1990. Since 2003 he is working as an independent filmmaker based in Wiesbaden (Germany) and Lucca (Italy).  

David Nyheim is the Chairman of International Conflict and Security (INCAS) Consulting Ltd., a group that provides peace-making, armed violence reduction, stabilisation and prevention services in war-torn and fragile countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. INCAS is a co-founder and funder of Artraker, an initiative that uses art to shape how people and organizations understand, engage and respond to situations of violence.

Marina Wallace has curated a number of major and groundbreaking exhibitions includingSeduced, Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now (Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2007/8). She is currently contributing towards a visual interpretation and the dissemination of scientific knowledge (the exhibition, Lens on Life and the documentary Meetings of Minds, 2012-2015) and is the author of a number of influential publications in the UK and abroad.

The Festival of Applied Imagination is delivered by MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries, part of the Culture and Enterprise programme at Central Saint Martins. MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries guides its students through the processes of being a change-maker, enabling them to harness their creativity to effect useful and meaningful change in the world. Students are trained to ask better questions, of themselves, each other and the world they live in. Graduates of the course have progressed to a wide range of careers in creative and social entrepreneurship, government initiatives for the creative sector, curatorial and gallery work, as well as academic teaching and research. The course currently has alumni working with The Design Council, Google, The Guardian, Transport for London, ASOS, China Central Television, Deloitte, Fitch and X-Box – as well as many other globally renowned organizations.