The chain of peace
Posters4Peace: When Peace Becomes Visible
Every year, we open a call to artists around the world and ask them to create something about positive peace. We never quite know what will come back to us. Every year, more than 100 amazing posters arrive - different styles, different cultures, different ways of seeing the world, but connected by the same idea: what does peace look like when we imagine it together? Over time, these posters have become part of the Peace Museums collection. But we never wanted them to stay quietly stored in a collection or only be seen inside a museum. We wanted them to travel. We wanted them to reach people in different countries, different cities, and different public spaces. Most of all, we wanted peace to become something people could actually see around them. That is the idea behind Posters4Peace.
From artists' hands to the walls of the world
This year, the project traveled to several exhibition spaces in Shanghai. The Shanghai International Peace Poster Commemorative Exhibition was presented at THE RIVER MALL Art Space from July 18 to 31, 2026, and at Wisdom Bay Art Museum from June 18 to October 31, 2026. The posters were also part of Historical Echoes, Shared Aspirations—International Peace Poster Exhibition at the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, where the exhibition continues from July 18 through December 31, 2026. The collection is also exhibited at the Canadian Peace Museum, continuing its journey across continents. For us, every one of these exhibitions is more than an opportunity to display art. Each exhibition gives these messages another life. A poster created by one person, somewhere in the world, can suddenly be seen by hundreds or thousands of people somewhere else. A simple sheet of paper can cross borders and start a conversation between people who may never meet.
Bringing peace into the streets of Vienna
On September 21, the International Day of Peace, we wanted to take this idea one step further. Instead of keeping the posters inside an exhibition space, we put them on the windows of the Azerbaijani Cultural Center in the heart of Vienna. For one day, peace became part of the street. People walking through the city could see the posters through the windows. They didn't need to buy a ticket or enter a museum. They could simply pass by and encounter an image created by an artist somewhere in the world who had decided to draw peace. We love this idea because peace belongs in our everyday lives. It belongs in our museums and schools, but it also belongs on our streets, in our windows, in our workplaces, and in our conversations.
When art becomes solidarity
This year, something particularly meaningful happened with the posters. In cooperation with International Cultural Diversity Organization (ICDO) and Alina C., the posters were given to peace supporters who were willing to make donations to help families in Colombia recover after an earthquake. And suddenly, we could see the whole chain of peace working in front of us. An artist creates a poster because they believe peace is worth imagining. The Peace Museum Vienna collects and shares that work. An exhibition brings it into a public space. Someone sees the poster, connects with its message, and decides to support the project. That support can then reach a family that needs help. The poster becomes more than a poster. It becomes part of an action.
The chain of peace
This is what makes Posters4Peace so special to us. It reminds us that peace does not always begin with something big. Sometimes it begins with an artist sitting at a desk and drawing an idea. Sometimes it begins with a museum deciding that these ideas deserve to be collected and shared. Sometimes it begins with someone stopping on a street in Vienna to look at a poster in a window. And sometimes, that small moment leads to an act of solidarity that reaches someone thousands of miles away. We are all connected through this chain. Artists. Museums. Cultural organizations. Peace supporters. People walking down the street. People who donate. People who stop and look. People who start conversations. Each of us can add something to the chain.
We will keep drawing peace
There is still so much work to do, and we know that a poster alone cannot create peace. But a poster can start a conversation. It can make us pause. It can remind us of something we might otherwise forget. It can put an idea into a public space and invite people to think about what kind of world they want to live in. So we will continue. We will continue opening the call to artists around the world. We will continue collecting their visions of positive peace. We will continue putting the posters on museum walls, in cultural spaces, and in windows facing the streets. And we will continue looking for ways to connect art with real acts of solidarity. Because we believe peace should not only be something we hope for. Peace should be visible. It should be present in our daily lives, in our public spaces, and in the conversations we have with one another. Maybe it starts with a drawing. Maybe it starts with a poster. Maybe it starts with one person deciding to make peace visible. And then another person joins. And another. That is the chain we want to keep building.
Posters4Peace is our way of drawing that chain, sharing it with the world, and keeping the conversation about peace alive.
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