Talking Walls
Community Art Initiative, Yei, South Sudan
Community • Participation • Resilience • Joy
Talking Walls grew from a belief that art can create spaces for joy, imagination, and resilience, even in the midst of extraordinary challenges. While living in South Sudan from 2006 to 2013, I worked alongside local leaders to help found a community-based organization rooted in the needs and strengths of the people it served.
Wanting to invite children into the creative process, I taught myself to paint so I could teach them. Together, we experimented with making paint from locally available materials and created art projects that encouraged imagination, expression, and joy in a place where art supplies were scarce.
Talking Walls explored how creativity can cultivate resilience, strengthen community, and give children opportunities to express themselves, imagine new possibilities, and tell their own stories.
