RYB
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
A research-first platform for a culture of peace
RYB Global Development (Red Yellow Blue) is an Amsterdam-based platform that connects citizens, NGOs and changemakers across 193 countries through research, storytelling and cultural initiatives.
WHO WE ARE
Researchers, artists and designers, working in public
RYB is run by an Amsterdam-based team of researchers, artists and designers. Our editorial direction is led by Frank Verspoor, editor-in-chief of RYB Global Development.
We help people understand the global development system, the role of the United Nations and NGOs, the frameworks that shape international cooperation, and then turn that understanding into cultural action.
MISSION & PURPOSE
Make development easier to understand, and easier to take part in.
RYB exists to bridge a gap. Global development is often discussed in conference halls and policy papers, while change happens in communities. Culture, art and the history of colour give people a way into the subject that does not require a policy background.
Our work follows the Sustainable Development Goals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and builds on UNESCO’s Culture of Peace programme. Our central project is the exhibition Cosmology of Peace: Red Yellow Blue Silk Road.
Five initiatives structure the platform: the Cosmology of Peace framework, the Silk Road research and touring exhibition, Culture Women’s Days, Creative Cities for Culture of Peace, and Global Development.
Every initiative is designed to be entered from more than one direction — by a researcher, an artist, a city, or a citizen who simply wants to understand.
HOW WE WORK
Research first, sources visible
RYB uses published data, such as the Sustainable Development Report, and links to artworks held in museums and collections worldwide. Sources and update dates are shown on our pages.
We write as a learning community, inviting readers to explore global development with us rather than judging from the outside. Where a topic is still being researched, such as Creative Cities for Culture of Peace, we say so plainly.
Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Jiajing mark and period (1522–66)
Porcelain painted in underglaze blue and overglaze yellow and red enamels
— The Metropolitan Museum of Art
WHERE THE NAME COMES FROM
Different civilisations, independently, kept reaching for the same three colours.
—
Red
Madder root, iron oxide and cinnabar: the colour of protection, ritual and status across empires.
—
Yellow
Weld, orpiment and imperial yellow: light, knowledge and the centre of the cosmic order.
—
Blue
Indigo and cobalt: distance, devotion and the glaze that carried blue across the Silk Road.From the cosmology of ancient China to the De Stijl movement, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, which used red, yellow and blue as symbols of universal peace and harmony. RYB builds on that shared inheritance as a starting point for new research and new art.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Led from Amsterdam, written with contributors worldwide
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Frank Verspoor
Artist, curator and publisher. Founder and editor-in-chief of Europa Regina.
Frank Verspoor is the editor-in-chief of RYB Global Development, the founder and editor-in-chief of Europa Regina, a B2B publisher for the creative industries since 2000, and the artist and curator of the Red Yellow Blue Silk Road.
He curates the exhibition and documents the research behind it: how red, yellow and blue recorded meaning, order and connection across ancient textiles, porcelain, manuscripts and carpets — and how colour, light, symbol and water link that history to today’s questions.
For questions about content, corrections or collaboration, write to f.a.verspoor@redyellowblue.org.