Project Details

The Walls of Peace

Short Description and Goal

Jo Dufo, a visionary painter and a public muralist, loves different cultures and paints colorful spiritual images that uplift and empower herself and others. She paints peace murals in orphanages, clinics, and community centers around the World.

 

Detailed Description

The Walls of Peace Global Peace Mural Project was executed in Fort Worth, USA, (2009) Nagaoka, Japan (2010) and on all four outside walls of the care center in Mbabane, Swaziland,(2011).

“It is inspiring to have 150 people show up and be able to complete a 250 foot mural in a day. Especially one that brings awareness to these care centers that provide meals to kids between 3-13 years old, who have been orphaned by AIDS and whose caregivers cannot afford to feed them. Our way of spreading peace in the world is to go to these various locations, orphanages, hospitals, schools, clinics and celebrate life, celebrate the children, and create peace murals as a way for the community to connect with the organization. The experience allows people who live in the same area to develop a relationship with each other., “ said Dufo.

Dufo started by engaging local neighborhood in Fort Worth to paint the tunnel under a bridge. This drew attention of Sister Cities International. Next year she was already painting murals in sister city of Nagaoka, followed the walls at The House of Love orphanage in Discovery Bay, Jamaica in 2011.

Through her funky and colorful art, Dufo spreads a message of peace and understanding that resonates with children of all ages and backgrounds. She’s not painting it all alone, members of the orphanage and communities around them all take part in the process in an effort to make their world look happier and more peaceful.

Learnings

Initially Dufo planned to make 36 murals all over the world. That was quite an ambitious plan. She made 6.

To draw attention and make the project bigger, she decided to make a documentary with Filmmaker Michael Aku RoDriguez. Thet launched a campaign on Kickstarter.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120524104721/http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/452690050/the-walls-of-peace

Within 52 days of campaign they’ve collected 0 out of $36,000 goal. Crowdfunding is a great instrument, and seems like a great way to market your project. But to make profit out of it, the campaign itself needs to be marketed widely, or be backed by projects community, if it has one. Without it, chances of collecting pledged goal are very low.

Initiated by

  • Jo Dufo

Initiators are

• Private individual(s) / Civil society

Funded by

• Crowd
• Foundations

Project Website(s)

Social Media Link(s)

Contact Info

https://www.facebook.com/jodufovisionaryartist/

Project Topics

Arts & Culture, Civil Society, Inclusion & Welfare, Sustainable development, Young People

Level / Project Complexity /

Small

Participating Cities

  • Fort Worth
  • Nagaoka
  • Mbabane
  • Chiapas
  • Discovery Bay

Sizes of Participating Cities

• 20.000 - 100.000
• 500.000 - 1,5 Mio
• more than 1,5 Mio

Participating Countries

  • USA
  • Japan
  • Eswatini
  • Mexico
  • Jamaica

Project Region(s)

• Asia
• Latin America & the Caribbean
• North America
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Media Credits

Image source: https://web.archive.org/web/20131207110229/http://thewallsofpeace.com/index.html

Cover picture from Facebook page of The Walls of Peace Global Peace Mural Project  https://www.facebook.com/The-Walls-of-Peace-Global-Peace-Mural-Project-556035177787819/photos/556137281110942