About MasterPeace Champions Edition
Some people don’t just work for an organisation, they become woven into its story. The Champions Edition is MasterPeace’s tribute to the people who have given the most: their time, their energy, their belief. These are the builders. The connectors. The ones who showed up, year after year, and made peace more than a word.
“Art Is Not Decoration. It Is a Quiet Revolution.”
Armela Pengili joined MasterPeace in 2013 from Tirana, Albania, drawn by a simple but radical idea: that peace is not something you declare, but it is something you practice, every single day. Over a decade later, she has helped introduce an entirely new concept to her country, built friendships across five continents, and become one of MasterPeace’s most devoted Club Leaders. This is her story, in her own words.
The Beginning
Armela Pengili grew up in Durres, a seaside city in Albania. It was 2013 when she first encountered MasterPeace, and what caught her attention was not a programme or a project, but an idea. “The idea that peace is not something you declare, but something you practice. Every single day.” In a world that often treats peace as an outcome rather than a daily act, that distinction felt important. It still does.
She describes her first experience of MasterPeace as discovering something genuinely different, not an organisation in the conventional sense, but a space. “A space where music, art, and human connection were not decorations, but tools for real change.” She became curious. She never really left.
“Peace is not something you declare. It is something you practice. Every single day.”
— Armela Pengili
Artiviste Stafete — Introducing Artivism to Albania
Over more than a decade as a Club Leader, Armela has led projects that go well beyond MasterPeace’s walls. But the work she is most proud of is Artiviste Stafete, a project that introduced the concept of artivism to Albania for the very first time.
The idea was deceptively simple: bring together artistic performance and social activism. Show that a song, a mural, or a theatre piece could carry a political message louder than a speech ever could. What started as a local experiment became something larger. Other projects and organisations across Albania began adopting the concept. Artivism (the fusion of art and activism) entered the vocabulary of Albanian civil society.
“That, for me, is what MasterPeace impact looks like,” Armela reflects.
“Not staying within your own walls, but inspiring a ripple that travels far beyond them.”
— Armela Pengili
What MasterPeace Has Taught Her
We asked Armela what MasterPeace has given her, and she does not reach for the expected answers. She talks about friendships, people from Tunisia, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Colombia, “united by shared values across distances and differences.” She talks about what leadership really means: not having all the answers, but creating space for others to flourish.
A Message to the Next Generation
Armela’s message to anyone just starting their MasterPeace journey is characteristic: direct, warm, and free of pretension.
“Come with curiosity and an open mind. You do not need to have the answers. You just need the desire to change something, and the courage to use creativity as your weapon.”
And if she had to sum up everything MasterPeace has taught her in one sentence? She already has. It is the sentence she carries:
“Art is not decoration, it is a quiet revolution.”
— Armela Pengili
Armela Pengili is a Club Leader at MasterPeace Albania, based in Tirana. She has been part of the MasterPeace family since 2013.
The Champions Edition celebrates the people who have helped build MasterPeace’s story.