Category: Thank Yous

Digital Literacy for 2nd Graders

February 7, 2016 Melissa Schilling Partners, Thank Yous, Visual Storytelling

THE ART + LITERACY LAB

What exactly can a Raspberry Pi accessorized with an SD card + WiFi dongle, 12 Amazon Fire Tablets, a Library For All hub and $400 accomplish? These tools are providing lift-off to our digital literacy program. Stay tuned for educational progress reports, Live from Haiti!

Project HOPE Art offers a studio environment where students can learn to express themselves in a multitude of languages with an array of tools. With Literacy Rates on the Rise in Haiti, thanks to the decision to socialize schooling for K-8 in Haiti, the need for Technological Literacy is essential to complete integration into a modern global society.
PHA has partnered with Library for All on the ground in Haiti for a pilot program for 2nd Graders in Cite Soleil.

“We are unlocking knowledge in the developing world with our digital library of quality, locally relevant ebooks.”

Support Project HOPE Art with a Donation.

Thank you to Sora Edwards-Thro of Unleashed Kids and College of William and Mary (& Rico, a staff member from Library for All) for leading the digital training.
Thank you to Dasher Technologies for providing seed money (just $400!) to jumpstart the pilot program.
Thank you to Haiti Communitere for hosting the digital training.
A BIG MESI to Luc Winter of the RAJEPRE School and Project HOPE Art for coordinating all the digital literacy efforts on the ground in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Next up? Digital Literacy in action. Our 2nd Graders are already working hard learning how to use the tablets and all the wonderful programs that will enrich their education. We think we’ll have to hire THEM to teach the next tablet training.

Help keep Project HOPE Art OPEN (for another year!)

October 27, 2015 Melissa Schilling Art Projects, Fundraiser, Join the Team, Partners, Thank Yous, Visual Storytelling

We are skipping our annual Donor Dinner this year in lieu of a Holiday Auction. We are also asking for cold hard cash to keep us open, operating and able to help our friends in Haiti for another year.

Project HOPE Art is now a 501C3! To help support HOPE Art and keep art alive for kids in Haiti, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Your donation is greatly appreciated!Please give what you can, every teensy little bit helps: https://www.paypal.me/hopeart

DONATE ONLINE NOW! SEND A PAYPAL DONATION TO: DONATIONS@PROJECTHOPEART.ORG

To Donate via Check: Please make checks out to Hope Art, Inc and mail to: Project HOPE Art, 2322 Humboldt Ave, Oakland, CA 94601. Please include a note that contains current contact information so that we can make sure you get a receipt for your donation. We are always open to accept donations, large and small. Thank you for your support!

HOW YOUR DONATION HELPS:

$50 gives art supplies to a hospital $100 provides a classroom of students sketch books to keep a creative journal $250 employs local interpreters for our artists $500 offers the opportunity for orphans to learn a creative trade $750 buys an artist transportation from the US to Haiti $1000 supports “the frame”; what holds PHA together and keeps us creative

The Traveling Rainbow Cabinet of Fun

February 18, 2015September 26, 2015 Melissa Schilling Join the Team, Partners, Thank Yous, Visual Storytelling

The only thing that beats a good plan, is a better plan. We find that collaboration brings us closer and closer to the best plans in the world.

Enormous thanks to Sam Bloch and Elizabeth Marley for collaborating on the early vision of our art center / storage container. Immense, gratitude to the NGO family over at Communitere for supporting our ideas, visions and plans. Especially Delphine Bedu and Caroline Etienne for handling so many nitty gritty details on our behalf.

In 2013, our rainbow cabinet was built by master craftsman, Jason DeCook and then painted in the colors of the rainbow by our friend, Aimee Gaines. Our Lady of Art was created by our friend Julie Koopman and she stands watch over all the visiting artists and their projects.

From our little spot in the workshop at Communitere we launched a number of projects, including Let There Be Light 1 and Let There Be Light 2. Thank you to artists Jenni Ward, Luc Winter, Racine Polycarpe, Claudel Cassius, Jason DeCook, Aimee Gaines, Shrine, Moon and Jade for all the hard work to make art in Cite Soleil.

For the last two years our rainbow cabinet has lived at Haiti Communitere stuffed to the brim with paint, paper, pastels, brushes and a ton of glitter.
For the last two and a half years we have held puppet shows, dance parties, recycled trash makeovers and more than one bicycle blender fruit smoothie extravaganza.

Haiti Communitere was a perfect home for us and all of our sparkling trinkets of inspiration and creativity. Free spirited artists must keep moving, so onward we go.

On February 15th our little Cabinet of Fun bid adieu to HC. We hope it left a trail of glitter so everyone could find their way to us in our new home in Pacot. Our cabinet is now parked in the Pacot neighborhood next to the Hotel Olofson. The keepers of the cabinet are 20 young ladies who are excited to put its contents to good use.

And with our move, comes new projects and collaborations …

We will be working with Emy Morse at her art school in Montan Noir.

We are also launching an art project with Human Rights activist and FOSAJ artist, Charlotte Charles and The Haiti Initiative’s Kara Lightburn in Jacmel.

And this summer we will be launching a summer gardening class with Rebuild Globally and SOIL.

“These are the days of miracle and wonder. This is the long distance call.” -Paul Simon

Hello 2015!

December 16, 2014 Melissa Schilling short story series, Thank Yous

There is life changing magic in tidying up. De-cluttering, giving things away, simplifying and taking a step back to see what is necessary and what simply takes up space. As the London Times puts it, sometimes “something is quietly profound: that mess is often about unhappiness, and that the right kind of tidying can be a kind of psychotherapy for the home as well as for the people in it … Its strength is its simplicity.”

So guess what?!
We’ve unloaded our beautiful art center at Haiti Communitere. For 2015 we packed up our art essentials and brought them to our favorite girls orphanage to store in rainbow cabinets. And our gardening supplies now live at Rebuild Globally, just waiting for our Gardening Class relaunch.
Instead of paying $500/month in rent. We are paying just $25 a month.
We’ve downsized, simplified and are going back to our roots.

While we have downsized our stuff. We are gearing up to maximize our impact. We have many classes, workshops, partnerships and artist internships up our sleeves for 2015 and 2016. Please stay with us in the coming years. So many beautiful children, teachers, community leaders and artists depend on your support to keep Project HOPE Art flourishing.

We operate on just $10,000 a year.
Please consider making a donation so our wheels keep spinning, our lights keep flashing, our paint brushes keep splashing color and our speakers keep boldly blasting beats!

Joyeux Noel, Tout Moun!

A big thank you to KK Graphics

July 29, 2014July 29, 2014 Melissa Schilling Art Projects, Partners, Thank Yous

Sometimes the right person at the right company comes along and saves your life.
That person was Julie Ma at KK Graphics.

Our deployment team to the Hurricane Yolanda disaster zone in the Leyte Province of the Philippines had placed an order with a large printing company based in West Oakland 3 weeks in advance of deployment.
At the last minute, it was learned that the print collateral order had never been printed.

Julie Ma to the rescue, with the minutes ticking down until our plane taxied down the runway, she calmly sent our digital file to the printer. In under an hour we had our stickers to hand out to children all over the disaster zone.

Thank You KK Graphics!
We owe you one.