Artegenesis — A generative ripple for individual and collective healing

This research investigates how expressive arts (EXA)-based crisis intervention community mural (CRICM) initiatives can mobilize salutogenic, health-generating resources and conflict transformation at individual and communal levels during active conflict. Using ethnographic, arts-based, and phenomenological methods, the study examines CRICM initiatives in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ukraine, where professional artists and local change agents engage communities in collectively creating murals. Findings demonstrate how CRICMs foster meaning-making, narrative reconfiguration, empowerment, resilience, agency, belonging, and community cohesion. The interaction between CRICMs, community Créateurs, and Aesthetic Witnesses can produce a sustainable ripple effect extending across communities. This emergent phenomenon, defined as Artegenesis, positions EXA-based CRICM initiatives as a legitimate, life-preserving first response to crisis while expanding existing theory and practice.