In January 2016 the Working Group Flag of Compassion was established. The members of the Working Group are young people from different nationalities and backgrounds. The group consists of philosophers, designers, radio makers, students, artists, political scientists, management consultants, cultural analysts and musicians. Once a month they meet each other at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.

The Working Group is appointed to study and report on the artwork Flag of Compassion and make recommendations based on its findings. It tries to activate and stimulate people to contemplate the meaning of compassion and to voice their interpretation by means of the Flag. Individuals within the Working Group can also initiate projects under their own name, which can be carried out singlehandedly or collectively.

These meetings resulted in several acts/events, like the act during the referendum, about the association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine, and De Parade of Ieder 1.

During the brainstorming sessions, several guests were present as well, amongst others:
– Henkjan Laats, director of Cultural Bridges, who received his PhD in conflict transformations.
– Mohannad Sharrouf, he fled from Syria where he studied English language and literature. Now he is an intercultural communicator and lectures about the relationship between Syria and The Netherlands.
– Marjolein Frijling, editor in chief of AmsterdamFM. The radio station is always live from the OBA and they had a conversation with the Working Group about the even 180 Amsterdammers.
– Tanja Karremans and Agnes Voskamp are, respectively, director and coordinator of Nieuw Dakota, a platform for contemporary art in Amsterdam North. They invited the Working Group for a collaboration. After several meetings and discussions within the Working Group the idea for Making Waves developed.

A subgroup of the Working Group Flag of Compassion set up the first edition of Making Waves. During the preparations of Making Waves 1, the meetings of the Working Group Flag of Compassion stopped.

Period of existence of the Working Group: January 2016 up to March 2017.
The artwork Flag of Compassion is taken as a meeting point to induce a critical dialogue.
Average of 17 members of which 9 are actively engaged, over 10 meetings.

The following people are members of the Working Group:

Ásgerður Birna Björnsdóttir – Student Fine Arts
Iris Blaak – Culturele analyst en writer
Roos Breeuwer – Artist en graphic designer
Anna Frijstein - Artist
Senne Hartland – Animator en musician
Renee Hartog – Political Scientist
Wei Ling Hung – Student Fine Arts
Masha Popova – Management Consultant
Julia Raaijman – Student Beta Gamma

The Working group is being coordinated by Lotte van der Woude.