Author: Melissa Schilling

الشمس لم تقل للأرض ابدا "أنت مدينةً لى". انظر ماذا حدث لمثل هذا الحب. لقد أضاء السماء كلها

Haiti Photo Exhibition with PotoFanm+Fi

November 13, 2013November 13, 2013 Melissa Schilling Uncategorized

We were recently introduced to Anne-christine d’Adesky who tells us that her project PotoFanm+Fi brings urgent attention – and action – to the needs and voices of Haiti’s girls. We’ll be featuring 10 photographs from resident photographer Melissa Schilling’s series: Afrolicious.

Exhibition date: Saturday, November 23rd – 10am to 4pm
Location: Petionville, Place Boyer

PotoFi is focused on helping Haitian girl survivors of sexual violence access timely, holistic services. PotoFi is a project of PotoFanm+Fi (‘Women and Girls Pillar’ in Kreyol), a Haiti solidarity coalition of Haitian, diaspora and global women’s rights advocates that formed after the January 2010 earthquake to support the voices and rights of women and girls in Haiti’s recovery.

PotoFi Haiti Girls Initiative formed in 2011 to address the impact of the earthquake on adolescent and younger girls and particularly the problems of sexual violence, early pregnancy, displacement and hunger among young girls.

PotoFanm + Fi participants include: Edwidge Danticat, Berlotte Israel, Leonie Hermantin and Karen Ashmore (Lambi Fund for Haiti), Anne-christine d’Adesky, Janet Feldman, Taina Bien-Aime (Equality Now), Martha Wallner (Media Justice History Project), Alice Backer and Georgia Popplewell (Global Voices), Soleil Pheonix, Régine Michèle Roumain, Julie Sutherland, Marie Bonheur-Gulotta, Regine Jean-Charles, Gina Ulysse, Michele Stephenson, Carla Murphy, Ann Rossetti, and LigPouvwaFanm.

Ongoing Outreach to Haitian and women’s groups includes: LigPouvwaFanm, SOFA,Fanm Deside, MPP-Femmes, MUDHA, FANM (Miami), Ezili Danto forum, CAFRA, Lakou, ATIS Fanm Matemwa and more.

Sponsor a Student in 2014

November 13, 2013November 14, 2013 Melissa Schilling Uncategorized

Project HOPE Art is now fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas!

Our new Project HOPE Art Center is primed and ready to host countless children in an array of art classes. We need your help to keep funding alive!

Click Here to Give a Tax-Deductible Donation!

This Holiday Season you can give the gift of learning and development in the Third World to a family member or friend in the First World. Donate now and we will send the recipient of your choice a festive and cheerful e-card explaining the details of your very special gift to support art in Haiti!

Make a $50 Donation to cover lunches for one student for a semester.

Make a $75 Donation to cover books, transportation and lunches for a student for a semester.

Make a $100 Donation to support our new animal husbandry program in conjunction with our Art + Botany class.
(Yes this is the goat’s natural hair!)

Make a $150 Donation to cover English lessons (including books, transportation and lunches) for an entire year for one student.

You can also set up recurring payments to sponsor the Project HOPE Art Center all year round.

$1200 covers the costs of an entire arts education class for 12 students. Our arts classes create jobs for local Haitians, and all of this can be achieved with $100 monthly donations for one year.

$600 covers the costs of seeds, clean water, nutritious compost and guest lecturers for our Art + Botany Lab class. All of this can be achieved with $50 monthly donations for one year.

Just click this link, make your donation and we’ll be in touch to send a personalized e-card to the recipient of your choice.
All holiday donations must be in by December 20th for e-gift cards to arrive by Christmas! To help support HOPE Art and keep art alive for kids in Haiti, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Your donation is incredibly appreciated.

Folk Pumpkins

October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 Melissa Schilling Art Projects 1 Comment

We love practicing art projects with local kids using discarded materials. In this case, we made folk art pumpkins from newspaper, scrap paper and leftover yarn & twine. Imaginations unite!

The kids and I had a frank discussion about all the different shapes, sizes, colors, textures and types of pumpkins. It was really sweet for everyone to come to the realization that there is not a perfect pumpkin and each and every different pumpkin had its endearing qualities.

Then we stuck our hands wrist deep in glue and shaped our own special folk pumpkins from newspaper. Once they were dry we used yarn, raffia, crepe & tissue paper to create multi-textured finishes.

I super love getting messy with these little loves.
Be sure to post on our facebook page, photos of your own homemade folk pumpkins!

…

It’s not too late to do this at home!
You will need:
Tissue paper or paper towels
Scissors
Non-toxic glue
Paint brush (to spread glue on the paper and help keep your hands clean too)

Directions:
1. Start by crinkling newspaper into a ball to create your desired pumpkin size and shape.
2. Crinkle newspaper to create a stem shape.
3. With the paint brush, spread glue around the top of the pumpkin and glue the stem part to your pumpkin figure.

Tip: Experiment with paints and glitter to create a more colorful or festive look to your pumpkin. You might try painting the stem or creating patterns and mixing colors.

gardening program and the art + botany lab

October 22, 2013November 21, 2013 Melissa Schilling Urban Agriculture

The 2014 Project HOPE Art Gardening Class will take place each Saturday at the Project HOPE Art Center at Haiti Communitere from 8am-11am.
The goal of the class is to teach fundamentals of gardening to 12 students and one class Supervisor so they may return to their neighborhoods and spread knowledge about urban agronomy. We want to prepare each student to grow their own food at home.

For our first foray, we’ve rounded up 12 students from a variety of neighborhoods, backgrounds, education levels and ages to come together and learn a skill that will help them feed their families and communities.

Class Instructor: TBD/Daniel Tillias
Class Supervisor: Luc Winter

Week 1-4: Basics of Gardening and Mapping Out Your Garden; Basic Husbandry (Rabbit Keeping)
Week 5-9: Soil Health: Composting and Vermicomposting; Moringa Trees and Soil Erosion
Week 10-14: Urban Gardening: Growing Vegetables in Containers
Week 15-19: Harvesting and Seed Saving
Week 20-24: Cooking with Moringa, Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs
Week 25-29: Aquaponics: Using Tilapia Fish
Week 30-32: MultiCropping and MonoCropping

Measuring Success: Each student in the class will keep a journal. In it they will be asked to write down notes, ideas, recipes and activities. We will invite local artists to attend the class and help the students learn botanical drawing. The students will take a field trip to the the Jaden Tap Tap Garden in Cite Soleil to see a working garden. At the end of the class, each student will be given seeds and asked to start their own mini-garden at home.

Student journal entries will be combined to create a gardening handbook.

Download our 2012 Gardening HandBook, There Grows The Neighborhood here.

Class Supervisor Luc Winter will use his knowledge from the class to start his own community garden at his school in Bwa Nef in Cite Soleil.

Our gardening class will run from March, 2014 – November 2014 on Saturdays at the Project HOPE Art Center. For the finale of the class, each student will be given seeds and a class generated gardening handbook to create their own mini container garden at home.

The young students in the class range across five neighborhoods and span educational, income and resource levels. They are 12 to 16 years old. All incredibly motivated to learn Urban Agronomy.

Meet our Students (coming soon!)