Creative Practices in Crisis and Conflict Response | ZMINA:Resilience capacity building workshop #12

Artists are often among the first to respond to crisis — creating spaces for expression, connection, and collective processing where institutional frameworks have yet to reach. But working with communities affected by armed conflict requires more than artistic skill. It requires an understanding of trauma, clear professional boundaries, and the capacity to hold emotionally safe space without assuming a clinical role.

This training session addresses the practical and ethical dimensions of creative work in humanitarian contexts. What can an artist offer that other professionals cannot — and where does that role end? How do we design participatory activities that strengthen resilience rather than risk re-traumatisation? How do we sustain ourselves as practitioners working inside the very conditions we are responding to?

We will begin with a conceptual framework for understanding the artist's position within the humanitarian response system, followed by a participatory exchange where participants reflect on their own practice, share approaches, and collectively explore solutions.

🗣️ Trainer: Veronika Skliarova

Veronika Skliarova is the founder of Art Dot NGO and Art Therapy Force — one of Ukraine's leading organisations developing arts-based approaches to trauma recovery in war-affected communities. Co-author of the Trauma-Attuned Arts Framework (King's College London, 2026), Adviser on Arts and Health to the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Initiator of the Healing Arts campaign in Ukraine, which includes congresses, showcases and educational programmes for practitioners.

📌 Key takeaways:

• Understanding Roles: the difference between therapeutic effect and therapy — where the artist's responsibility begins and ends.
• Designing for Safety: principles for creating participatory activities that support emotional regulation and social connection in crisis settings.
• Do No Harm: recognising re-traumatisation risks and building referral pathways with mental health professionals.
• Practitioner Sustainability: approaches to self-care and emotional capacity when working from within a crisis context.

The training session will be held in English.

📅 Wednesday, 25 November | 13:00 – 15:00 CEST 
🔗 Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/8jAEFYDTm 
ℹ️ For more information check out zmina.eu

 

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ZMINA:Resilience is a cooperation between IZOLYATSIA (UA), Malý Berlín (SK) with support of Trans Europe Halles (SE).

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Co-funded by New Democracy Fund / Danish Cultural Institute.