RYB
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
RYB GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT . AMSTERDAM
Art, Culture & Research for a Culture of Peace
Connecting people, cultures and ideas across 193 countries through research, storytelling and cultural initiatives.
193
UN MEMBER STATES
5
GLOBAL INITIATIVES
1
SHARED FRAMEWORK
1999
UN CULTURE OF PEACE
A platform where culture makes global development legible
RYB is an Amsterdam-based platform that connects citizens, NGOs and changemakers across 193 countries through research, storytelling and culture. We follow the Sustainable Development Goals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and bring them closer to people through art and exhibitions.
Our work is organised around the Cosmology of Peace, which asks where peace comes from, how it is built and what its future could be. Culture, art and the history of colour make international development easier to understand — and easier to take part in.
Madder, weld and indigo: three dye families that travelled the Silk Road and shaped how cultures recorded meaning.
One framework. Five ways in.
Five initiatives, each opening a different door into the same idea: that peace is built in culture, in cities and in everyday life.
Red, Yellow, Blue: A Shared Human Inheritance
If human DNA carries the code for life, red, yellow and blue might be called a shared code for how people build meaning. Across history, many cultures that never met reached for the same three colours to express their understanding of the world, from harmony and order to safety, identity and design.
Long before red, yellow and blue defined modern art movements, they carried meaning in ancient societies. They are found in the cosmology of ancient China and in the abstract art of Mondrian’s De Stijl. RYB follows this history and builds on it with new, original art, in an exhibition that is also about peace.
We tell this story through research and storytelling, and we link to artworks in museums and collections worldwide, from ancient carpets, pottery and manuscripts to the paintings that followed. Follow the journey on the Red Yellow Blue Silk Road page.
Sharing Humanity: What Connects Us
UNESCO’s Sharing Humanity campaign is built around what connects people across differences: quality education for all, reconciling humans with nature, science and technology in the service of humanity, and inclusive, peaceful societies built on mutual respect and understanding.
Red, yellow and blue tell a similar story through colour. Different civilisations, independently, kept reaching for the same three colours to build meaning, order and beauty. RYB sees its work as part of the same idea: following this shared colour history, building new art upon it, and showing people what already connects them.
RYB builds on the UN and UNESCO Culture of Peace programme.