Call to Artists: Submit Work for Upcoming Show at NUNU Arts and Culture Collective
Refuge: The Courage to Witness is a multidisciplinary initiative that explores what keeps us disconnected from suffering and conflict and from recognizing the potential for healing and peace. Initiated by Hagit Barkai, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, in collaboration with the NUNU Art and Culture Collective, the project aims to connect global and local issues while fostering communication around personal and societal healing during times of conflict. It serves as a catalyst for growth, bridging the distance between global conflict, community concerns, and the transformative power of healing through art and dialogue.
The project includes a solo exhibition by visual artist Hagit Barkai, a group exhibition, creative panel discussions, and community conversations featuring performances, storytelling, ceremonies, and dialogues led by local artists, community leaders and trauma‑informed Collective Intelligence facilitators.
The main exhibition presents Hagit Barkai’s painted reflections on witnessing the destruction in Israel and Palestine from the intersection of personal and collective responsibility, victim and victimizer, trauma and privilege, as well as erasure and the production of personal and collective history. The work delves into themes of conflict and healing dialectics, exploring the mechanisms that block understanding of conflict and pathways to healing. The paintings measure the ethical and emotional distance from the horrors of human suffering as they unfold in real time. They ask what painting choices can be made through observation, image placement and markmaking to shift from enmeshed reactivity, denial, avoidance, complicity, isolation, and the illusion of separateness, toward a peace‑building response to human suffering and a renewed connection to human dignity.
The open call for the juried group exhibition, Side By Side / Piece By Peace, is open to artists in any media and works should explore refuge as an act of resistance, a catalyst for peace, and a space for collective healing.
Submission Now Open:
https://acadiana.culturalyst.com/opportunities/2083
About The Jurors:
Guest Juror:
Sami Parbhoo is a Palestinian‑Indian American author and cultural leader, and past president of Festival International, supporting the vitality of the local music ecosystem in Lafayette, LA and beyond.
Refuge Advisory Board:
Anna Kojevnikov is an Arts Advocate and Community Development Leader, serving as Community Engagement Director at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette LA, supporting artists, cultural organizations, and community groups through grantmaking, professional development and public art initiatives.
Claire J. Amy, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Art Education at UL Lafayette whose work centers on the lived experience of the arts and on community‑driven, statewide service‑learning initiatives that expand access to creative spaces and arts experiences across Louisiana.
Clare Cook is a choreographer, dancer, educator, and the Founder and Creative Director of Basin Arts, advancing sustainable creative practice, expanding access to contemporary arts experiences, and supporting Louisiana artists through impactful opportunities that strengthen region’s cultural landscape.
Yael Gronner, PhD, is a Collective Intelligence Facilitator and Peace‑Building Activist based in Cabrières d'Aigues, Provence, France, and Co‑Founder of Tisseuses de Paix and Visions Collectives Association, supporting organizations and institutions in building strong multi‑cultural collaborations and cultivating collective intelligence within teams.
Refuge: The Courage to Witness is supported by the Acadiana Center for the Arts ArtSpark Grant, funded by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and the National Endowment of the Arts.
Location:
NUNU Art and Culture Collective, 1510 Courtableau Hwy 1510 Courtableau Hwy, Arnaudville, LA 70512
Important dates:
Submission Deadline: February 9, 2026
Exhibition Dates: March 6 to May 4, 2026
Opening night. including Panel and Symposium: Friday, March 13, 6-9PM
www.hagitbarkai.com/refuge
About the Artist
Hagit Barkai is a visual artist and Peace Activation facilitator, born in Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine and based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her work explores the body as a site of vulnerability, resistance, and connection. She works primarily in painting, alongside drawing, printmaking, and directed photo‑performance. Her art examines the awkwardness of the body as it moves through social expectations, layering form and formlessness to reveal the body’s ambivalence. The figures she paints embody both comfort and discomfort, acceptance and resistance, safeguarding the freedom to change. Positioning art as a placeholder for peacebuilding, she uses her artistic practice as a bridge across divides and an invitation to dialogue where words fall short.