Arts of Peace for the Youths in the Three Southern Border Provinces

Abstract

This research aimed to study the art styles for peace in the southern border provinces and how to create art for peace for the youths. It was also to bring the knowledge to develop the youths in the southern border area in accordance with the artists’ artistic approach for peace in the area. The data in this research were collected by in-depth interviews, group discussions, and developmental practices. The instruments used in the study included the in-depth interview form, the group discussion form, and the youth development evaluation form.

The results of this study are as follows: 1. The method to study the art styles for peace in the southern border provinces was through the lesson learned from the art in the local area. The data were collected by using in-depth interview. The target sample was the artists in the local area. The artists’ working experiences in the creation of work for peace in the three southern border provinces were classified into three categories: 1) painting, 2) photograph, and 3) video. Each category consisted of five artists and there were 15 of them in total. The styles of art for peace in this study were mostly concrete and focused on the lifestyle of people in the area, travel attractions, and art and culture. The styles proposed by all the artists were 90% positive arts presenting peace, beauty, and confidence in changing the youths with art for peace. This would lead to good attitude towards the new generation youths with artistic tools. 2. In order to create art for peace for the youths, all the information was taken for the lesson learned by using group discussion to plan and design workshops for the youths. The method to develop a youth group was a step to include into the creation processes through: 1) creating positive attitudes toward the local circumstances, 2) conveying the beautiful symbolic works that were available in the area in order to make a concrete contribution to the peace for the youths with arts as much as possible. The young people participated in the training were 14-18 years olds studying in private religious schools where had been affected by the unrest in the interest of 3 categories of arts, namely painting, photography, and video. Each category consisted of 10 youths and there were 30 youths in total to participate in the training to create the art for peace for concreteness. The training was divided into 2 sessions : 1) a training session to convey the attitude towards creating peace in the area for the youths to do art for peace; 2) a training to present and comment

on the piece of works from each category to lead to the exhibition for the youths.