FAU Hosts Peace Exhibition

BOCA RATON, FL (October 21, 2004) - In support of the United Nations International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World, Florida Atlantic University's Peace Studies Program presents "Building a Culture of Peace for Children of the World." The exhibition will run Saturday, October 23 through Sunday, October 24 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in FAU's University Center on the Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. It is free and open to the public.

The exhibition brings together the ideas and examples of hundreds of people, organizations and movements dedicated to opening a path to lasting peace. There will be an opening ceremony for the exhibition on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Grand Palm Room. The opening will include documentaries related to children and peace issues, including the highly regarded film "Promises," which includes interviews with Palestinian and Israeli children. At 2:30 p.m. in the Senate Chambers, the award-winning documentary "Another Way of Seeing Things" will be shown. This is a short film about the dangers of stereotyping. The film tells the story of British historian Arnold Toynbee's experiences as a journalist covering the Greco-Turkish war in the 1920s and his attempts to "hear the other side." This will be followed at 3 p.m. by a student forum on the exhibition theme.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Senate Chambers, Tlinget Tribal Leader Harold Gatensby will speak on "Peace Circles and Restorative Justice." Gatensby will initiate a Peace Circle Keepers training session that will run concurrently with the exhibition. Peace Circles are a method of communication and problem solving based on the wisdom of many cultures. From these small circles of communication springs the larger idea of solving problems through one-to-one contact. The training will be given to 20 local high school students that have been selected by their schools for their interest in peer mediation and conflict resolution. At the end of the training, these 20 students will be certified as Peace Circle Leaders.

The exhibition and Peace Circles are presented by the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters Peace Studies Program and Soka Gakkai International-USA. The exhibition will also be shown from Monday, October 25 through Monday, November 1 in FAU's Wimberly Library.

For further information on the events, contact Jeffrey S. Morton, director of the Peace Studies Program, at FAU at 561-297-3216.

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