Drawing a Connection: Using Art to Communicate Complex Issues

This free online-only event is organised by the AIIA National Office in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We will send those who register a reminder with a link one hour before the event and again just before the event.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82343143224?pwd=ajR0ZDd3YURMOFJOV2lSVnpOeWhnUT09

Humanitarian work likely brings to mind images of nurses and doctors tending to patients in field hospitals or people dressed in blazers huddled around a table in Geneva. But humanitarian workers engage in a vast array of activities, including helping stakeholders, donors, those directly affected by conflict or disaster, and the general public understand complex issues. One way of achieving this objective is through art and creative communications. Colourful comics, illustrations posted on Instagram, motion graphics, virtual reality and public art installations have the power to move us. They can also help us provide insight into the realities of conflict and illustrate how humanitarian organisations work within these contexts. Using art to communicate allows us to explore niche or abstract topics, like the ICRC’s role as a neutral intermediary in new and engaging ways. Art transcends language, age, and education, which allows for information to be distributed in a more accessible way. 

 

SPEAKERS

Chely Esguerra, Head of ICRC Regional Communication Center

Claudia Chinyere Akole, Freelance artist

Pascal Hufschmid, Executive Director, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

Dr Bryce Wakefield, National Executive Director, AIIA

Introduced by David Tuck, Head of Mission, ICRC Australia

Moderated by Nancy Schneider, National Operations Manager, AIIA

 

Chely is a communications practitioner with over 15 years of experience mostly working with mission-driven organization. She is currently the Head of the Regional Communication Center of ICRC based in Bangkok, where she gets to work with artists to create products that narrate and call support for humanitarian concerns. Before working for the ICRC, she founded her own social startup to tell stories of non-profits in creative ways, including through photography, videography, animation, puppetry, and graphic design. Her toy camera photos have been exhibited in the Philippines and in the UK. In the last decade, she has been seeking to learn the art of designing experiences, services, and growth. If someone offered her a cookie, she will probably take four.

 

 

 

Claudia Chinyere Akole is an exhibiting artist, freelance illustrator, cartoonist, designer, animator, and educator based in Sydney, Australia (Gadigal and Wangal land). She works as a graphic designer in TV broadcast, as a freelance illustrator, and creates comics and illustrations in her personal practice. She's an art hag who bleeds pink – and a notorious crybaby with work that tends to cover cultural identity, abstraction, and mental health. Claudia has taught design, comics, and animation workshops at various levels including high school, university, and professional settings. She established the Tracing Paper Comix style, which involves creating final comic art traditionally using paint markers on multiple layers of tracing paper. And she’s also a part of the organizing team for ‘Read To Me’ – a live graphic storytelling event in Sydney and beyond.

 

Pascal Hufschmid is the Executive Director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. An art historian specializing in photography, he believes that art and museums help us understand today’s world. He draws on his international experience in the museum sector, the art market and international organizations to develop large-scale multidisciplinary cultural projects with public and private partners. To date, he has been active in over 40 countries. He regularly lectures in Switzerland and around the world on innovation, business development and leadership. In 2020 and 2021, he was recognised as one the 100 people advancing Switzerland on its journey to become a leading global digital hub of innovation (Digital Shaper Award). He was also selected amongst the Young Leaders of Tomorrow who make up Geneva as the world capital of diplomacy and humanitarian affairs.

 

Dr Bryce Wakefield is the national executive director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University. He has lived, worked and researched in the United States, Japan, Europe and New Zealand. He trained as a political scientist with particular expertise in International Relations and the international affairs of East Asia. From 2012 to 2018, he was a tenured lecturer of area studies and international relations at Leiden University in the Netherlands. At Leiden he taught numerous classes on the foreign policy and domestic politics of Japan, the politics of East Asia, comparative politics, and the relationship between politics and culture. He designed and implemented a successful specialization on culture and politics for Leiden’s graduate program in International Relations.

 

David Tuck holds a LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) and Bachelor of Asian Studies (specialist in Hindi) from the Australian National University. David has worked with the ICRC since 2006, first as a Pashtu Interpreter and Protection Delegate in Afghanistan. From 2011, he has been Legal Adviser to the ICRC’s Operations in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and for the Middle East. Between 2018 and 2020, David was the ICRC’s Regional Legal Adviser for the East and Horn of Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently ICRC Head of Mission in Canberra. As the Head of Mission, David leads a team that works closely with government, military, diplomatic and academic stakeholders to foster support for the ICRC’s global operations and to promote international humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. Follow David’s work on Twitter at @DETuckICRC.

 

Nancy Schneider is the National Operations Manager for the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) and the editor of Australian Outlook, the online publication of the AIIA. Nancy is responsible for managing the AIIA’s online presence, as well as the National Office internship program.

 

 

 

 

 

If you require any accommodations to make this event accessible to you, please send an email to communications@internationalaffairs.org.au