the international peace tiles project (http://www.peacetiles.net) needs some help. some great pieces are in place and now the site needs some grinding and spit and polish. i am hoping i might get some ideas - maybe even support! - here at n2.

a little background. peacetiles.net started in 2005 as a site to coordinate an international mural project centered on raising the "visual voice" of children and youth on world aids day. at the core of the peacetiles process are collages made on 8"x8" wood panel. today peacetiles has become a site for sharing and coordinating many kinds of activities around several issues, among them children in conflict, hiv/aids, and human trafficking. to date, it is estimated that more than 4,000 tiles have been made in over 20 countries spanning 4 continents.

there are several key pieces to the project:

• workshops

• kits
• murals
• website

workshops

come in two flavors: training of trainers and reflection workshops. t4t is for groups that want to use the process as a way to use the process to raise up issues in their community. reflection workshops support groups use the process to bring creativity to discussion around often difficult issues. tiles can be kept, exchanged, or used to create vibrant murals.

kits

are prepared wood tiles packaged with collage materials and instructions that enable individuals to plug into the peacetiles network. bundled in pairs, these tiles can be used for personalized gifts and greetings and are sold through art supply stores, galleries and other specialty stores.

murals

are a way for groups to put their tiles to use, brighten the walls of a clinic or to raise public awareness about an important issue in the community or the world. murals have been exhibited in more than a dozen venues around the world.

here's a great example of how peacetiles have been used. in 2005 a high school student in Maine raised the resources she needed to sponsor several elementary school workshops on AIDS in Africa as part of her senior community service project. In 2006 she arranged a field research project in South Africa where she brought the tiles with her, found a local pediatric AIDS clinic in which to install them, and left them there as a permanent gift from her community to their. it was a beautiful gesture and wonderful demonstration of how the peacetiles process - and art-based programs in general - can be used to strengthen bonds among people and communities.

to the

website

. its a basic drupal site, enabling much of the usual goodies, with a couple of unique features: the first is a "swap engine" that enables users to upload a tile, select a "swap" status, and coordinate with other users to initiate and carry out the exchange of tiles. another neat feature is the ecard and mural maker developed by the folks at TIG. This tools pulls images from a Flickr stream into a drag-and-drop interface in which unique cards can be composed and sent to friends.

more needs to be done. in addition to smoothing out some of the existing features and css styling, i'd like to integrate tools like:

• googlemaps

• tagging
• rss subscriptions
• basic image manipulation (cropping and geometry)
• a flash-based collage maker
• ecommerce (kit sales, image royalties?)

so i need help at two levels:

• strategic thinking about how to stage these features, how to design and how to finance then.

• i also need the concrete skills to build them - i've got basic design skills, but really need a creative partnership to make this thing thrive.

apologies in advance for the long post. any ideas on places to turn for this kind of support? cheers, and thanks in advance!