From 2022 to 2025, I served on the leadership team of the international nonprofit, The Centre for Peace and Performing Arts (CPPA), alongside colleagues and friends. Guided by founder Baisali Mohanty’s vision and direction, we built CPPA from the ground up, hosting festivals in major European and South Asian cities, including Rome, London, Delhi, and Kolkata.

The Centre for Peace and Performing Arts asks: “How can the arts promote global peace and solidarity?” Working alongside academics, artists, diplomats, and local organizers, our mission was to connect communities through the arts and promote cultural understanding as a way to heal deep-rooted fissures.

CPPA began in Rome, Italy. I was fortunate to document its earliest stages, capturing intimate gatherings and events through 2025. These images speak to the power of women invested in one another, in their peacebuilding work, their artistic practices, and their communities. Ultimately, they reflect the unifying power of empathetic expression and the ingenuity of working across borders and time zones in pursuit of a cause we all believed in.

Our stressful planning sessions, the encouragement we offered one another, the tense moments, and the post-event elation were all worth it. CPPA survives today as a registered nonprofit in the United Kingdom and India.