Actively involved in the youth and citizenship plan proposed by the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in the wake of the attack on Samuel Paty, and more specifically around the theme of media and information literacy, the Blaise-Cendrars media library has organised a number of initiatives around press cartoons from 2021, in close partnership with Cartooning for Peace.
In 2025, for the third year running, the press cartoonists’ residency was organised around the ‘Draw me the War’ exhibition with ten groups of secondary school pupils from Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, who were able to visit the exhibition and meet a press cartoonist during a discussion workshop and a practical press cartooning workshop.
The project ended at the multimedia library on Saturday 17 May 2025 with a public event to showcase the work of the young people, in the presence of the young people and their families. An exhibition of the cartoons produced by the students during the residency (280 in total) was presented.
The event, which focused on the themes of peace and press freedom, was opened by Laurent Brosse, Mayor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, Victoria Courtois, Director of the Blaise-Cendrars multimedia library, and Anne Lejeune, Cartooning for Peace’s head of educational projects.
Some of the young people then presented their cartoons to the audience, explaining their graphic choices and the message they wished to convey, in relation to the theme of the exhibition: war and peace.
Cuban cartoonist Wimar, a member of Cartooning for Peace, then presented his journey into exile through his cartoons, before producing a live cartoon with audience participation. The cartoon was inspired by words suggested as symbols of peace: the Statue of Liberty, the colour green to symbolise hope, a white flag, the ‘Peace and Love’ symbol, a broken gun and a person dancing.
