The Project
The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is a major art exhibition that presents art as a lens through which to see our common humanity and explore the many meanings of peace. It features works from 88 artists representing more than 25 countries and began its global tour in 2006. It was created through a collaborative effort with Darlene Markovich, co-founder and Executive Director of the exhibit and President of the Committe of 100 for Tibet, and by representatives of The Dalai Lama Foundation.
The Dalai Lama Foundation developed a values-oriented curriculum for middle school (approximately ages 10 to 13) and high school (ages 14 to 18) to accompany the exhibition. It provides a framework for young people to move from inspiration to continued study and engagement.
The Missing Peace Curriculum
The curriculum was made available in conjunction with the exhibition’s launch at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History on June 11, 2006. It includes an Educator’s Guide and two activity modules. If you are an educator or parent, we invite you to download the middle school or high school curriculum materials below and adapt them for use in your classroom. The materials were developed for US students and curriculum standards, but can be used worldwide.
The curriculum is also included in The Missing Peace In A Box.
We welcome your advice and participation! Please share your experiences with us by sending email to curriculum@dlfound.org or participating in our online educators’ activities.
Middle School Curriculum Materials (for grades 6-8, ages 11-13)
Notes for downloaders: The Guides are provided as both PDF and Microsoft Word documents. Each poster-based exercise is provided as a 5-page booklet, with 8.5″x11″ pages (standard US letter-size), and also in a 17″x22″ full-size poster format. The full-size poster files are large, ranging from 5mB to 20mB in size.
These documents are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 2.5 license, which permits you to modify, use and distribute the documents provided you do this on a non-profit basis and give credit to the originator.
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| Educator’s Guide | A general guide for the middle school teacher, including a complete lesson plan for the module Pathways to Empathy, with background information, description of all activities, discussion questions, and vocabulary words. |
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| The Future in Your Hands | An introduction to art-making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of The Future in Your Hands (2004). Includes a dialog with artist Ichi Ikeda. |
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| Naturally We | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of Naturally We (2005). Includes a dialog with artist Squeak Carnwath. |
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| Signs of the Times | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of Signs of the Times (2005). Includes a dialog with artist Seyed Alavi. |
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High School Curriculum Materials (for ages 14-18)
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| Educator’s Guide | A general guide for the high school teacher, including a complete lesson plan for the module Pathways to Empathy, with background information, description of all activities, discussion questions, and vocabulary words. |
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| Signs of the Times | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of Signs of the Times (2005). Includes a dialog with artist Seyed Alavi. |
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| Meditation on Universal Compassion | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of Meditation on Universal Compassion (2005). Includes a dialog with artist Binh Danh. |
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| The Future in Your Hands | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of The Future in Your Hands (2004). Includes a dialog with artist Ichi Ikeda. |
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| Naturally We | An introduction to art making techniques, interpretation of motive and meaning in art, and the process of artistic creation, in the form of a poster of Naturally We (2005). Includes a dialog with artist Sqeak Carnwath. |
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Background on The Missing Peace Project
The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is the result of a collaboration between the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation. In the words of Project Director Darlene Markovich,
We see this project as a unique opportunity to explore the idea of art as an interpretation of, and a catalyst for, peace. The project and exhibition title is a play on words — peace may always be elusive, or missing, in our world, but the Dalai Lama consistently shows that dedicating oneself to peace is anything but pointless.
A total of 88 artists have been selected to participate, including Laurie Anderson, Ken Aptekar, Richard Avedon, Guy Buffet, Adam Fuss, Jenny Holzer, Michael Rovner, Bill Viola and Katarina Wong. Many of the artists have created new work for the exhibition in a wide variety of media, including photography, painting, textiles, animation, sculpture, video, and installation works.
The only instruction given the artists was to create a work of art inspired by the life and message of the Dalai Lama. The artists responded, each in his or her own unique way, with a wide range of works that indicate the many dimensions of the Dalai Lama’s life and message, the power of art to allow us to see our common humanity in new ways, and the freedom of the artistic imagination.
Through the work of the featured artists, we hope to broaden appreciation for the principles the Dalai Lama has exemplified throughout his lifetime of service, and to inspire people around the world to make their own irreplaceable contributions to a more peaceful world.
You’ll need (the free) Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF documents.
If you download the MS Word versions of our documents, you can modify the materials to suit your own classroom, organizational or home education needs. You will need to own Microsoft Word, or the free OpenOffice, to open and use these documents.These documents are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 2.5 license, which permits you to modify, use and distribute the documents provided you do this on a non-profit basis and give credit to the originator.
