Protecting What Makes Us Human: Art, Conflict, and Resilience

For more than 15 years, I have worked in humanitarian and conflict settings with the United Nations and humanitarian organizations. Alongside that work, I founded My Petite Gallery in 2023, an art gallery at the intersection of art and advocacy, focusing on artists from conflict-affected areas.

For me, these two worlds have always been deeply connected.

In conflict settings, I saw how art becomes much more than art. It becomes a way to preserve identity, memory, dignity, and hope. A form of resilience. Sometimes even a form of survival.

In Mali, I experienced the power of music, but also the extraordinary beauty of places like Timbuktu and Djenné, and the importance of protecting culture even in times of destruction.

In Yemen, despite the war, I remember walking through Old Sana’a, entering some of the oldest mosques in the Islamic world, and witnessing beauty and craftsmanship that conflict could not erase.

In Sudan, I saw dance and music creating moments of connection, humanity, and life amid immense suffering.

And it was not only the communities around us. Many humanitarian colleagues also turned to art. Some painted watercolors. Others practiced photography, played violin, or turned to music after long days in the field. Art became a way to process and carry what we had witnessed.

These experiences shaped the way I understand protection. Because protection is not only about physical safety. It is also about protecting culture, memory, identity, and humanity itself.

At a time when many civilians affected by conflict cannot physically be present in the rooms where decisions are made, art brings their presence into those spaces. It creates another language for protection. One that reaches people not only intellectually, but emotionally.

Artists give us access to realities, emotions, and lived experiences that statistics and reports alone cannot fully convey.

Through My Petite Gallery, I hope to continue creating space for those voices and perspectives, and to contribute, in a small way, to ensuring that civilians affected by conflict are not only spoken about, but also seen, heard, and felt.

So today, I hope we take the time not only to look, but truly to see. Not only to hear, but to listen.

Art connects us in a deeply human way, and that connection is at the core of both peace and the protection of civilians.