Benjamin Swatez, PhD

International interdisciplinary artist, artist-researcher, and peacebuilder whose primary visual modality is painting and whose practice spans socially engaged art, large-scale community murals, live performance, music, documentary film, photography, and expressive arts. More than fifteen years of international field practice have brought this work into communities facing conflict, displacement, disaster, exploitation, environmental disruption, and social transition across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas.

Swatez’s artistic practice became the ground for doctoral research in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Through Expressive Arts. Through ethnographic, phenomenological, and arts-based research in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ukraine, he developed the Crisis Intervention Community Mural (CRICM) framework and articulated Artegenesis: an emergent, sustainable ripple phenomenon arising through the convergence of expressive arts, salutogenesis, and conflict transformation. His current research extends this inquiry across expressive modalities and toward interdisciplinary qualitative, psychological, physiological, and neurological investigation.

• Artegenesis; CRICM; artistic research; expressive arts in active conflict and crisis environments

• Socially engaged, participatory, community-authored, and intermodal artistic practice

• Creative psychosocial first response; acute stress; salutogenesis; resource recognition and mobilization

• Conflict transformation, narrative reconfiguration, agency, resilience, social cohesion, belonging, and collective memory

• Aesthetic Witnessing, Créateurs, local Change Agents, trans-local circulation, and self-propagating creative ripples

• Art and ecology; biocultural knowledge; environmental transformation; disaster recovery; place-based practice

• Arts-based research, ethnography, phenomenology, participatory inquiry, and mixed qualitative-quantitative research

• Art-science dialogue, neuroaesthetics, neuroscience, physiology, and creative processes under extreme stress

• Cultural humility, non-prescriptive facilitation, local stewardship, ethical first-response training, and sustainable capacity-building

Artegenesis

Original phenomenon articulated through Swatez’s doctoral ethnographic and phenomenological case-study research in active conflict contexts. Artegenesis describes an emergent, sustainable and potentially self-propagating ripple arising at the convergence of expressive arts, salutogenesis, and conflict transformation, including continuation through Créateurs, Aesthetic Witnesses, local Change Agents, artworks, collective memory, media circulation, and subsequent creative action.

Crisis Intervention Community Mural (CRICM)

Term and framework developed by Swatez for expressive-arts-based crisis intervention community mural processes in contexts of acute adversity. CRICM integrates culturally responsive listening, intermodal expressive arts, collective composition, community authorship, artistic facilitation, inauguration/honoring, Aesthetic Witnessing, crystallization, and post-completion stewardship. The research positions CRICM as a potentially life-preserving creative psychosocial first response.

Créateur and Aesthetic Witness

Original terms/concepts developed within the CRICM/Artegenesis framework to describe dynamic participatory and witnessing roles in the creative and post-creative ripple. Aesthetic Witnesses may become Créateurs; Créateurs may emerge as local Change Agents; and local Change Agents may initiate subsequent community-led processes.

Implementation Principle

Standardize the principles, safeguards, and transferable processes; adapt their application to context; never standardize the expression. Build local capacity rather than dependency; support the ripple without controlling where it travels; and allow the artwork to function as an enduring anchor of transformation and collective memory.

PhD, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Through Expressive Arts | European Graduate School of Expressive Arts, Switzerland | 2026

• Dissertation: Artegenesis Phenomenon: The Ripple Effect Mobilized by Expressive Arts-Based Crisis Intervention Community Murals Within the Contexts of Active Conflicts in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, & Ukraine.

• Methods: ethnographic field research; arts-based research; phenomenological case studies; semi-structured interviews; cross-case analysis.

• Advisers: Dr. Chelsea L. Wilkinson and Dr. Jose Miguel Calderon.

MA, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Through Expressive Arts | European Graduate School, Switzerland | 2022

BA, Fine Arts (Painting and Photography) | University of California, Davis | 2004

Additional Studies

• Lund University, Sweden — Child Development and Ecological Architecture.

• University of California, Santa Barbara — Art Studio and Art History.

• UC Santa Cruz Sierra Institute — Anthropology, Marine Biology, and Botany, including field-based study in Guatemala and Belize.

Developing the postdoctoral/faculty trajectory from defended CRICM and Artegenesis scholarship toward a rigorously investigated, context-adaptable framework for creative psychosocial first response. The long-range goal is to establish ethical safeguards, facilitator competencies, training structures, quality criteria, and evaluative processes that can be standardized while expressive outcomes remain culturally situated, emergent, and community-authored.

• Systematic investigation of Artegenesis across collaborative music-making, participatory film, performance, sculpture, muralism, and other intermodal creative practices.

• Comparative inquiry across active conflict, displacement, disaster response, healthcare, exploitation/trafficking, community recovery, and other environments of acute adversity.

• Investigation of narrative reconfiguration and collective memory locally and trans-locally through Aesthetic Witnessing, media circulation, artistic replication, and subsequent creative action.

• Development and evaluation of local Change Agent and train-the-trainer models designed to strengthen community-led continuity after an initiating intervention concludes.

• Integration of arts-based, phenomenological, and ethnographic evidence with complementary psychological, physiological, and neurological research into creative processes and acute stress.

Doctoral Research — Artegenesis / CRICM | Colombia | Democratic Republic of Congo | Ukraine | 2026

• Conducted cross-case phenomenological research with local professional artists and Change Agents Boris Arteaga, Brice Mumbere Kamabu, and Olena Yanko, grounded in long-term ethnographic field relationships.

• Investigated community authorship, salutogenic resource mobilization, conflict transformation, resilience, agency, social cohesion, collective memory, Aesthetic Witnessing, and locally sustained creative action.

International Ethnographic & Practice-Based Field Research | Multiple cultural and crisis contexts | Ongoing

• Developed CRICM and intermodal expressive-arts processes through direct facilitation with communities facing conflict, displacement, disaster, poverty, exploitation, and other forms of adversity.

• Field practice emphasizes deep listening, cultural humility, community expertise, non-prescriptive facilitation, local authorship, stewardship, and ethical adaptation to context.

Community Painting Peace RDC | Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo | 2013–2014

• Intermodal expressive-arts curriculum culminating in an early CRICM process; worked closely with youth artist Brice Mumbere Kamabu, whose subsequent trajectory as professional artist and local Change Agent became a key longitudinal example informing Artegenesis.

Heart of Resilience | Democratic Republic of Congo | 2020

• Co-led with artist Amanda “Azerine” DeLuca; retraced the Congo River route associated with Heart of Darkness while facilitating 14 CRICMs that foregrounded community-authored narratives of resilience, alongside local humanitarian and medical collaboration. In Kisangani, the initiative included collaboration with Alliance Française.

Northern Uganda Arts-Based Peacebuilding | Lira / Pader / Barlonyo region, Uganda | 2013–2014

• Shared arts-based community empowerment processes with more than 700 conflict-affected youth and former child soldiers; recurring classes near the Barlonyo massacre site expanded through voluntary participation and led to large-scale community murals.

Bahari Village Creative Empowerment | India | 2011

• Three-week expressive-arts process in Bahari, Uttar Pradesh, with a community recently freed from debt-bonded slavery; documented contemporaneously by Free the Slaves (April 8, 2011). The project grew from Swatez’s live painting at the 2010 Freedom Rocks after-party: he auctioned the artwork to help finance the India project. Intergenerational community painting and participants’ convergent imagery prompted early reflection on culturally situated expression, collective identity, facilitator control, and community-authored meaning-making.

• Final community artworks were explicitly conceived as a way for villagers to share their “voice of freedom” beyond Bahari, providing an early documented example of trans-local artistic communication within Swatez’s international practice.

Sunny Waters / Hurricane Dorian Recovery | Abaco, Bahamas | 2019–2020

• Directed community-engaged artistic and psychosocial recovery initiatives after Hurricane Dorian, including public art connected to safe water, solar-powered infrastructure, ecological awareness, youth participation, and community resilience.

Syrian Refugee Intermodal Arts / Welcome to My House | Jordan / Washington | 2016

• Collaborative painting, music, photography, dance, film, and migrating artworks connected refugee youth in Jordan with youth in Washington, creating an early trans-local model of intermodal co-creation and Aesthetic Witnessing.

Viracocha / San Agustín Community Mural | Colombia

• Co-created with youth ambassadors, local participants, and artist Boris Arteaga at a sustainability-focused community site; integrated local symbolism, ecological relationships, collaborative artistic practice, and a field relationship that later informed doctoral research.

Homecoming | Ukraine | 2022

• CRICM created with community participants during active conflict; dialogue and design development began before physical arrival and contributed to the ethnographic foundation of the Ukraine doctoral case-study context.

Luctor et Emergo: I Struggle and Emerge | Disaster-recovery context | 2024

• Large-scale community mural subsequently incorporated into local university curriculum as a site for Aesthetic Witnessing and discussion of street art as a health-generating resource.

• An extensive project history, including additional international community-art, humanitarian, disaster-response, peacebuilding, CRICM, expressive-arts, and interdisciplinary initiatives, is available upon request.

Wall of Hope | Kathmandu, Nepal | 2018

• Artistic Director for a collaborative anti-human-trafficking / anti-violence public-art campaign with Nepali and international artists. Works included murals on the European Union and Australian Embassy walls; the 252-foot Neglected mural was documented by The Kathmandu Post, and Wall of Hope works later entered the University of Nottingham Rights Lab’s Imagining Freedom research collection.

Diepsloot Township CRICM | Johannesburg, South Africa

• Directed a CRICM process bringing approximately 70 PhD students into collaborative field engagement with youth from Diepsloot Township, integrating teaching, facilitated collective creation, community participation, and situated learning through artistic practice.

Rwanda Art Museum Initiative | Rwanda | 2021

• Collaborative mural initiative at the Rwanda Art Museum with Amanda “Azerine” DeLuca and Rwandan artists Louise Kanyange and Daddy; works engaged imagination, cultural continuity, and the relationship between pre-colonial and future-oriented narratives.

The Goodness Tour | Global | Co-Founder, 2014–Present | Executive Director / CEO

• Lead design and coordination of expressive-arts, psychosocial support, community recovery, and resilience initiatives in conflict, refugee, disaster, healthcare, and underserved settings.

• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams of artists, musicians, filmmakers, expressive-arts practitioners, local facilitators, and community collaborators.

• Develop working relationships with UN-linked actors, government ministries, municipalities, NGOs, schools, cultural institutions, community organizations, and private supporters.

• Design capacity-building for local facilitators, educators, social workers, humanitarian practitioners, community leaders, and creative Change Agents.

Organización Mundial de Artistas Integrados (OMAI) | Global | Co-Founder, 2012 | President / Executive Leadership, 2018

• Co-founded an international artist network and, while serving as OMAI President in 2018, conceived and directed the OMAI Goodness Tour International Art Convention in Puerto Rico as an interdisciplinary arts and community-response initiative following Hurricane Maria.

• Recruited and coordinated professional muralists, musicians, dancers, and interdisciplinary artists from 18 countries, while collaborating directly with Puerto Rican and Taíno artists, local communities, students, cultural institutions, and government stakeholders.

• Produced a multi-site program integrating international art exhibitions at the Museum of the Americas, large-scale community murals, concerts with the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, and expressive-arts programming in healthcare, mental-health, and community settings.

• Directed expressive-arts activities with survivors of domestic abuse, children receiving cancer treatment, and children receiving inpatient mental-health care, including programming conducted directly within a children's hospital and in classrooms made available through the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico.

• Collaborated with the Dean, faculty/students, and facilities of the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico, integrating local students into convention programming and community-based creative work.

• Coordinated public murals across Puerto Rico, including a La Perla community mural honoring lives lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a central-plaza mural developed with government officials, and a mural at an elementary school.

• Built the logistical and resource infrastructure for the international delegation, securing housing through public education authorities, meals through local restaurants, donated transportation, and full art-supply sponsorship from Benjamin Moore.

• Created an intercultural program that included artists whose lived experiences broadened the gathering's perspective, including an invited professional Iranian dancer who was also a refugee.

Chime-In International Youth Ambassador Program | Executive Art Director / Consultant | 2015–2019

• Mentored youth ambassadors and developed international arts-based cultural exchange, service, and community-engaged projects.

UNICEF-Funded Psychosocial Support Response | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Project Director | 2021

• Led post-volcanic-eruption psychosocial support response; coordinated 42 workshops across 14 emergency shelters and six community resilience/recovery projects with local artists and government stakeholders.

Greece Refugee Support Programme | Greece | Project Director | 2022

• Designed and delivered psychosocial support and intercultural engagement programming involving refugees from 14 countries in collaboration with local partners and UNHCR-linked actors.

Democratic Republic of Congo Humanitarian Programme | 2013–2021+ | Founder / Programme Director

• Designed and led expressive-arts and psychosocial initiatives with conflict-affected children, former child soldiers, vulnerable youth, local artists, and community partners; returned across multiple years for continued collaboration and local capacity-building.

Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) | Cal State LA Campus | 2026

• Led The Goodness Tour educational programming bridging the arts, sciences, civic engagement, and community empowerment, engaging more than 250 students across classes and related activities.

• Facilitated Civic Engagement training designed to inspire the next generation of artists to apply their creative practices to social engagement and community empowerment projects.

• Directed a large-scale participatory mural beside the school’s outdoor amphitheater, with more than 100 students contributing directly to the painting and additional participation from the wider school community, including the vice principal, principal, superintendent, and community members.

• Expressive arts and intermodal creative facilitation in crisis, humanitarian, community, and educational settings.

• CRICM methodology: contextual listening, community-engaged concept development, collective creation, inauguration/honoring, Aesthetic Witnessing, crystallization, stewardship, and continuity.

• Capacity-building for local Change Agents, artists, facilitators, educators, social workers, humanitarian practitioners, community leaders, youth, and interns.

• Directed a Diepsloot Township, South Africa CRICM process with approximately 70 PhD students and township youth, integrating doctoral-level experiential learning, community-engaged facilitation, collective creation, and situated knowledge exchange.

• Culturally responsive, trauma-aware, non-prescriptive facilitation emphasizing community expertise and local authorship.

• Conflict transformation, peacebuilding, narrative reconfiguration, social cohesion, collective memory, and creative agency.

• Prospective academic/workshop areas: Artegenesis Theory & Research; CRICM Methodology; Artistic Research; Expressive Arts in Crisis Response; Arts-Based Peacebuilding; Creative First Response; Intermodal EXA; Community-Based Art; Ethics & Cultural Humility.

International interdisciplinary artist whose primary visual practice is painting. Career encompasses studio painting, photography, large-scale muralism, socially engaged public art, live painting, documentary film, music, fire performance, and intermodal collaboration. Dissertation records more than 80 international exhibitions on four continents and more than 200 murals in over 40 countries, including works on embassies, plazas, airports, hotels, offices, bridges, clinics, hospitals, schools, orphanages, NGO headquarters, refugee camps, community centers, shelters, and buildings affected by catastrophe or war.

Selected Exhibitions & Presentations

• The Power of Choice / El Poder de Elegir — Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Huila (MACH), Neiva, Colombia.

• Hands Full of Hope / Manos Llena de Esperanza — Cathedral Gallery Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Tunuyán, Mendoza, Argentina.

• International exhibition participation — Venice, Italy.

• The Movement for Peace and for Life — international symposium/exhibition context, Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

• Selected exhibitions and cultural presentations in Spain, Italy, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Uganda, and additional international locations.

• 2005 — Blurring Borders — Solo Exhibition, Robert’s Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark.

• 2007 — Fusions of the Forgotten Moment — Solo Exhibition, Accident Gallery, Humboldt County, California.

• 2010 — The Power of Choice / El Poder de Elegir — Solo Exhibition, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Huila (MACH), Neiva, Colombia; October 20–November 18.

• 2010 — The Power of Choice — Solo Exhibition and Bahari project fundraiser, Ortega 120, Los Angeles, California.

• 2012 — Freedom — Solo Exhibition, Phantom Gallery, Long Beach, California; combined Swatez’s work with collaborative Bahari works and youth artwork from Los Angeles.

• 2013 — One World United by Art — International collective exhibition, International Airport of Puebla, Mexico; February 26–March 29.

• 2013 — Art and Environment / El Arte y el Medio Ambiente — International collective exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art of Cusco, Peru; August 2–15.

• 2014 — International Exhibition of Catalunya / Exposición Internacional en Catalunya — BCM Art Gallery, Barcelona, Spain; February 14–March 1.

• 2014 — Encuentros y Visiones — Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá, Colombia; international exhibition with artists representing 13 countries.

• 2014 — The Movement for Peace and for Life / Movimiento por la Paz y la Vida — Solo exhibition and trans-local presentation of participant artwork, Barquisimeto, Venezuela; October 12–16.

• 2014 — Hands Full of Hope / Manos Llena de Esperanza — Solo Exhibition, Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Tunuyán, Mendoza, Argentina; November 25–December 10; presented eight works by Swatez alongside 211 paintings from international community-art projects.

• 2015 — Los Ojos del Arte / The Eyes of Art — Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Huila (MACH), Neiva, Colombia; international exhibition and Mención de Honor.

• 2015 — Asher Vida — Salvador Allende Gallery (MAGNA), Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuquén, Argentina; international exhibition representing 24 countries.

• 2016 — Presencia y Testimonio / Testimony and Presence — Museo El Peñol, Antioquia, Colombia; international exhibition representing 16 countries.

• 2016 — Contemporary Tendencies — Centro Cultural El Cuartel, Ibarra, Ecuador; international exhibition.

• 2017 — Festival Internacional Arte Sin Fronteras Por La Paz de Colombia — MACH, Neiva, Colombia; international peace-focused exhibition with approximately 165 artists from 33 countries.

• 2023 — Rutas de la Paz: Festival de Arte — Casa de Cultura de la Ciudad de Plottier, Neuquén, Argentina; international collective exhibition with 82 artists from 14 countries.

• An extensive chronological exhibition history, including additional solo, museum, gallery, international collective, curatorial, community-art, and interdisciplinary presentations, is available upon request.

Live Painting, Music & Performance

• More than 200 live-painting performances and concert collaborations reported across the professional archive; performs painting on stage alongside bands, musicians, choirs, and cultural events.

• Flute player and interdisciplinary musical collaborator; music frequently integrated into expressive-arts and community processes.

• Professional fire performer / fire dancer, including circus performance in Mexico and earlier public artistic practice in Granada, Spain.

• Granada, Spain: lived for approximately one year and engaged in painting, public performance, intercultural artistic practice, and community gatherings in and around the cave communities of the Albaicín; one artwork remains in a cultural cave.

Revival: A Documentary About Hope | Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina | Co-Director

• Co-directed with Danica Curcic and Kirsten Astrup; documented youth expression through graffiti, skateboarding, music, and the Revival Festival at Dom Mladih in post-war Sarajevo. Film later circulated through Bosnian television and European documentary/cultural contexts.

The Freedom Song | New Orleans / Baton Rouge post-Hurricane Katrina context

• Participated in filming a music project with musician Luc Reynaud and children connected to a shelter following Hurricane Katrina.

The Goodness Tour: Poland & Ukraine | Short Documentary | 2022

• Co-writer, on-screen participant, contributing cinematographer, Project Director, and CRICM Lead. Short documentary documenting The Goodness Tour’s expressive-arts-based crisis response with displaced Ukrainian children in Poland and communities affected by war in Ukraine. Swatez co-wrote the screenplay, appeared in the film through his leadership of the CRICM initiatives, and filmed portions of the cinematography. The documentary was subsequently presented as part of Swatez’s live presentation at the 2022 Global JOY Summit.

Intermodal Media Practice

• Artistic projects have extended through music videos, documentary processes, photography, participatory film, performance, and the trans-local circulation of community-authored images and artworks.

• Field-based undergraduate study in anthropology, marine biology, botany, conservation, and agroforestry in Guatemala and Belize.

• Extended lived experience with Shipibo communities in the Peruvian Amazon; intercultural exchange included learning around medicinal plants, ceremonial contexts, song, visual art, and handmade traditions, approached as participant and guest rather than as holder of Indigenous authority.

• Community and environmental art practice has intersected with sustainable agriculture, watershed stewardship, water infrastructure, biodiversity, disaster recovery, ecological knowledge, and place-based cultural practice.

• Projects in Canada have included work within the UNESCO-designated Long Point Biosphere Region and direct engagement with First Nations and treaty education.

• 2026 — National Mural Awards, Community Award — The Goodness Tour; Pacific Palisades wildfire-response community mural directed by Benjamin Swatez as Lead Muralist / Visual Arts Program Director with 50+ community participants.

• 2015 — Mención de Honor — Los Ojos del Arte, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Huila (MACH), Neiva, Colombia; recognition for humanitarian, artistic, and cultural work.

• 2015 — Certificate of Honor and Merit — Colors and Dreams / Colores y Sueños, Galería de Arte Barracas, Mendoza, Argentina. [Primary historical record; external verification in progress.]

• 2015 — Certificate of Honor — Asher–Vida, Biblioteca Popular Naciones Americas, Allen, Río Negro, Argentina. [Primary historical record; external verification in progress.]

• 2014 — Best Painting of the International Exhibition — I Am Life, International Exhibition of Catalunya, BCM Art Gallery, Barcelona, Spain. [Primary historical record; external verification in progress.]

• 2022 — Curricular Recognition — Benjamin Swatez’s 2017 post-Hurricane Maria community mural practice in Aguada incorporated as a teaching case in Kairós: Historia 7 — Guía del Maestro (Publicaciones Educativas / CENIEC), Puerto Rico.

• University research-collection recognition — Wall of Hope works incorporated into the University of Nottingham Rights Lab’s Imagining Freedom collection on global anti-slavery muralism.

• A more extensive chronology of artistic awards, honors, institutional recognition, and collection records is available upon request.

2018 — Wall of Hope, Kathmandu, Nepal. Artistic Director for collaborative anti-trafficking / anti-violence public murals developed with Nepali and international artists, including Wall of Hope works on the European Union and Australian Embassy walls. The 252-foot Neglected mural was documented by The Kathmandu Post and later incorporated, together with additional Wall of Hope works, into the University of Nottingham Rights Lab’s Imagining Freedom research collection on global anti-slavery muralism.

2018 — OMAI Goodness Tour International Art Convention, Puerto Rico. President of OMAI and Executive Director of the international arts convention, coordinating interdisciplinary artists and community-engaged programming in the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Maria; included participatory murals, exhibitions, performances and psychosocial arts initiatives.

2017 — Glo-Cal / Pithora collaborative public-art project, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Collaborated with Robert Markey and Pithora/Adivasi painters in a municipal cultural-center mural emphasizing intercultural artistic exchange and mutual learning.

2017–2018 — Post-Hurricane Maria community arts, Puerto Rico. Directed participatory mural initiatives including Aguada and subsequent La Perla work; the La Perla memorial mural later entered popular-media circulation and remained documented within the community’s cultural landscape.

Selected relationships have included UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Free the Slaves, Water Mission, Rotary International, national and municipal governments, embassies, schools, universities, museums, cultural institutions, community organizations, local NGOs, and international humanitarian organizations. Relationships have varied by project as funder, host, implementing partner, collaborator, stakeholder, authority, or dissemination partner.

Professional Football / Soccer | Denmark and Scandinavia

• Signed a professional soccer contract in Denmark after university and played professionally in Scandinavia before transitioning fully into an international artistic career.

International Field Experience

Selected countries/territories include Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Jordan, Greece, Ukraine, Poland, India, Nepal, Colombia, Guatemala, Belize, Peru, Argentina, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Canada, United States, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, South Africa, Cuba, Israel/Palestine, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, and additional locations.

Selected media record includes television, radio, podcast and print interviews; international and regional news coverage; documentary/video appearances; and institutional media documenting artistic, humanitarian and research practice.

Selected verified/archived coverage includes The Kathmandu Post; Psychology Today; UNHCR Greece; USA TODAY Network / Coshocton Tribune; Metro Puerto Rico; NoticiasPRTV; Inter News Service; Methow Valley News; St. Vincent Searchlight; ABC6 Columbus; KTVL; Jefferson Public Radio; KCAL; The New Times (Rwanda); and international photojournalism documenting Ukraine-related work in Kraków.

2021 — British Museum International Training Programme Newsletter — Activities at Rwanda Museums during their closure identified Benjamin Swatez and Azerine Deluca alongside Rwandan artists Louise Kanyange and Daddy in connection with two murals completed at the Rwanda Art Museum, describing the works as representing the beauty and actualisation of dreams and embracing the old and new, pre-colonial and futuristic, masculine and feminine.

2021 — BraveHearts Radio — invited guest with The Goodness Tour team discussing music, art and creative empowerment.

2022 — Global JOY Summit | Presenter and Project Director, Poland & Ukraine — Presented live to the Summit’s international audience alongside the screening of a short documentary on The Goodness Tour’s Poland and Ukraine initiatives. Swatez served as Project Director and CRICM Lead, co-writer, on-screen participant, and contributing cinematographer. The Summit, centered on the teachings and friendship of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, reached more than 186,000 viewers across 190 countries.

Invited talks, artist talks, seminars, professional trainings, panels and public presentations have accompanied international exhibitions, community projects and expressive-arts initiatives; full chronology under archival reconstruction.

An extensive media and public-engagement record—including additional television, radio, podcast and print interviews; invited talks; keynotes; seminars; panels; inaugurations; artist talks; and public presentations—is available upon request.

• English — Native / fluent.

• Spanish — Professional working proficiency; extensive lived and field experience in Spanish-speaking contexts.

• Italian — Developing comprehension supported by Spanish proficiency; not currently fluent.

Doctoral Dissertation | European Graduate School of Expressive Arts | 2026

Artegenesis Phenomenon: The Ripple Effect Mobilized by Expressive Arts-Based Crisis Intervention Community Murals Within the Contexts of Active Conflicts in Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, & Ukraine.

Master Thesis | European Graduate School of Expressive Arts | 2022

The Heart of Resilience Art Expedition: Shifting the Narrative Through the Expressive Arts (Down the Congo River)

• Research and practice have received international media and institutional coverage in humanitarian, artistic, and psychosocial contexts. Formal bibliography of peer-reviewed scholarship, public scholarship, media features, interviews, artist talks, and institutional dissemination is being reconstructed for targeted academic applications.

• 80+ international art exhibitions on four continents (doctoral dissertation record).

• 200+ murals in 40+ countries (doctoral dissertation record).

40+ psychosocial support, CRICM, expressive arts peacebuilding, and conflict transformation projects directly engaging 14,000+ people facing adversity, with secondary reach in the millions through public art, education, broadcast, film, and digital media.

• Extensive work with youth, refugees, internally displaced communities, former child soldiers, survivors of trafficking, disaster-affected communities, artists, educators, local leaders, and humanitarian practitioners.