REstART 2025

REstART is a unique international festival that merges art and restorative justice to inspire dialogue and transformation. 

Through powerful performing arts, inspiring exhibitions, interactive workshops and immersive art experiences, the festival will explore how creativity can foster new narratives and experiences of justice for individuals and communities. 

The festival engages artists, justice practitioners and the general public in meaningful conversations, using the arts to highlight lived experiences of harm and restorative justice and offering a deeper understanding of the alternative justice models.

REstART is more than an art festival: it is a movement for change in the criminal justice system and in societies as a whole. Join us in shaping the future of justice through arts and creativity! 

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Connecting arts and restorative justice creates a space for dialogue, storytelling, and deeper understanding. The arts provide an emotional and accessible way to explore complex issues like crime, harm, trauma, conflicts, accountability, reparation and redress , making restorative justice more tangible and relatable. Through visual art, theatre, music, and other creative forms of expression, individuals can share lived experiences, build empathy, and inspire dialogue. This connection also helps communities engage with restorative justice beyond legal frameworks, emphasising its human and transformative aspects.

REstART is unique for:

• Using Art as a Catalyst for Justice – The festival showcases powerful artworks that tell stories of people with lived experiences of crime, violence and conflict (e.g. victims and offenders) and their encounters with the “difficult other”. 
• Engaging New and Diverse Audiences – The festival creates spaces for meaningful conversations about justice and repair, offering audiences a deeper emotional and intellectual understanding of restorative justice and other alternative justice models.
• Promoting Art as a Bridge for Dialogue – The festival  includes immersive and participatory workshops to challenge conventional justice models, foster understanding of restorative justice and create space for difficult conversations to happen. 
• Innovating Restorative Justice Practices – The festival is the opportunity to introduce innovative restorative justice practices using creative methodologies and arts as tools for conflict transformation and social change.
• Celebrating Restorative Justice – The festival marks the first 25 years of the restorative justice movement in Europe by inviting the international restorative justice community to the restorative city of Leuven.

REstART highlights the works of different international artists who  contribute to raising awareness about restorative justice through various art forms (such as performing arts, film and documentaries, multimedia arts, sounds and music). 

The EFRJ shortlisted some artists with whom it cooperated in the past, and a call for proposals is launched between 1 April - 1 June 2025 to include other artists or creative practitioners in the programme.