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About Shanti

Our Mission:

To foster peace, acceptance, and understanding in the everyday interactions of people, through visual, literary, and performing arts programs in schools and communities

Our Goal:

To assist communities with issues of diversity and inclusiveness and to help all people succeed and contribute in a diverse society by providing experiences that develop imaginative, flexible, inclusive, collaborative thinking.

Our Vision:

Shanti works toward a future in which:

• The arts are recognized as a key element in the creation of
vibrant, creative, and peaceful communities

• Non-violent decision making is valued as an active force essential to
a just and equal society, a thriving economy, and an inclusive democratic culture

• Diversity and differences are celebrated, seen as assets, and used wisely
to strategize and solve the problems that we face individually and collectively

• All people are valued as individuals for what they can contribute to the larger community

Our Belief:

Shanti believes that the skills necessary to and gained through art-making are inseparable from the skills needed for problem-solving and peace-making. These skills include the ability to see things differently, to express ideas and feelings in diverse ways, to envision new possibilities and probabilities, and to think through problems.

Our Values:

Peace through Artistic Creativity

We believe that the creation of group artistic projects through shared decision-making is integral to fostering peaceful communities.

Integrity

We aspire to the highest level of honesty, dignity, inclusion, acceptance and understanding in all personal and professional interactions.

Respect

We acknowledge and embrace individual and group differences, and strive to respect the added values they bring to the artistic process.

Mutual Support

We provide encouragement and collaboration with other organizations that foster art education and non-violence.

Excellence

We conduct our programs and activities in a manner that demonstrates and demands the highest standards and practices of our staff, our artist educators, and our partners.

Our History:

Shanti Foundation for Peace was established in 1993 by Indira Freitas Johnson, who comes from a family of peacemakers. Her father chronicled the work of Mahatma Gandhi in arts and letters, and her mother assisted Mother Teresa in helping the disadvantaged. In fact, it was Mother Teresa who helped Indira leave her native India for higher education in the United States.

Johnson, a nationally- acclaimed artist, based Shanti’s vision on her own artistic experience, which was that the skills necessary to and gained through art-making are inseparable from the skills needed for problem-solving and peace-making: the ability to see things differently, to express ideas and feelings in many different ways, to envision new possibilities and probabilities, to imagine, to risk, to own, to take responsibility.

Shanti's work has inspired schools and community organizations for over ten years. The first Shanti project, entitled “Getting Along: Peace Bus,” was developed in collaboration with the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Children’s Museum. The expressions and artwork of Chicago area children was displayed on CTA buses to raise public awareness of local issues and build a bridge between art, peace, and society. That project was so successful that Shanti's work expanded into neighborhoods and schools.

In 1995, with the help of artists, curriculum experts, teachers, parents, and peace- activists, Shanti developed the Arts and Nonviolence Concepts Handbook, with scope and sequence for grades 1-12. Since then Shanti has worked successfully with more than 50 Chicago Area Public School partners and 25 area community institutions, binding communities and bringing people together in ways that have enriched their understanding, their voices, and their enduring spirits.