Category: Uncategorized

We get by with a little help from our friends . . .

11219025_10153125715936195_336177969033008772_n Last Wednesday one of our favorite project partners, Ti Kay Haiti, suffered a devastating fire (the second time in their operational history) and lost nearly everything.
Utilizing our Bay Area resources we were able to pack a 50lb box of gauze, batteries, clipboards and sharpies, syringes, needles, gloves and various tweezers and scissors to send to Haiti with our friend Jen Hogan.

A big thank you to our friend Mimi Tran for donating $100 to cover shipping costs.
And a big thank you to Patti from Vida USA for donating the medical supplies.

When you donate to Project HOPE Art we do our best to share the love amongst our friends, partners and neighbors. Thank you for all your continued support.

DONATE NOW!

5th Annual Ladies Arm Wrestling Tournament: Disco Edition

Arrrrrre you reaaaady to RRRrrrrumble?
Wrestlers, Register Here: http://bit.ly/1LaXN9A

COST: FREE before 5pm! After 5pm-> $5/Ladies $10/Gentleman
WHEN: Sunday, April 19th 2015 – 4-7PM
WHERE: Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 896-1234
Emcees: Betty Tight and Paul Trask
Referee: Alex Mace and Elvis
Beats by Marky Ray of Brass Tax

WHY: FREE ART SCHOOL IN HAITI!
Print-29Raising money for a variety of art classes and projects with a special focus on our new art + health partnership with Human Rights artist, Charlotte Charles.

“In an artistic nod to the core of all the beautiful women (sisters, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, aunts, cousins) that we work with, Project HOPE Art is proud to announce the birth of our newest endeavor, Art + Health Lab — Project Pap Smear.

Nurse Practitioner and Artist, Tara Jean Reilly will be partnering with Photographer Melissa Schilling and Human Rights Activist, Rape Victim Supporter and Artist, Charlotte Charles on a listening tour. The goal is to connect with 20 women who live in the very rural mountains above the artistic community of Jacmel, Haiti.
Many of these women have suffered abuse.
Some have never been seen by a doctor in their lives.
Some can read, some can not.
Some have children, some do not.
The goal is to really listen to them and formulate a plan to infuse their lives with healthful information, resources and practices based on their needs and wants.”

Music Class is Jammin’!

IMG_4735_wThe Project HOPE Art Art + Music Lab is alive and thriving, celebrating the joy of song, movement and sound with Haitian children in Port Au Prince. Last November 2014, The Project HOPE Art Team brought down three giant suitcases filled to the brim with donated instruments- ukeleles, guitars, melodicas, horn instruments, a keyboard, recorders and drums- for the students to learn with!  The children were thrilled at the sight of the array of instruments, and during the first music class, each student had a chance to hold, play and experiment with each new instrument, and began practicing together on basic drum and recorder tunes. And man! Do these kids have rhythm! Every student is allowed to take home their very own recorder to practice on, while the remaining instruments stay at the art center for everyone to share for the duration of the music class.

The Rythmn and Recycling Workshop, led by artist Rachel Znerold and Haitian musician Gueldy René, and supported by PHA founder Melissa Schilling and PHA Technology Teacher Christine Rosacranse, kicked off the Music Class with back-to-back weekend workshops in late November. Using recycled materials, from t-shirts and trims to bottle caps and buttons, each student constructed a musical costume that made a joyful noise with every stomp, shimmy and shake. The students practiced drawing and painting their favorite instruments, and using tin cans and pebbles, the students even constructed their own handmade percussion instruments, and adorned them all using glitter and paint.

During the second weekend, local musician Gueldy René wrote a new song  for the children, who learned the song and dance routine by Rachel Znerold that same afternoon. They students caught on quickly, adding their own flair to each movement, and the very next day, complete with musical costumes and choreographed dance moves,  the Music Class performed together for the first time ever at the Project Hope Art Graduation Ceremony for the Gardening Class. PHA Artists Sarah Boll and Liz Ancker were on the scene to create a festive Graduation Party, bursting with the energy of all the people, plants, art, music, and dance! The performance was a great success and the music class was buzzing with the excitement of creating music together.

Now, each Saturday, the students come from orphanages and schools throughout Port Au Prince to the Music Class at The Project HOPE Art Center to be taught by Gueldy, Juré and Winter– it is a weekly chance to escape to a beautiful community center to practice their instruments, learn how to read music, share the joy of song and enjoy a healthy meal together every week. Thanks to our generous donors, Project HOPE Art is able to provide weekly music classes for these students for the next several months, but we need your continued support to help the music and learning grow through the end of the year!  If you can help, please DONATE NOW!!

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS WHO HELPED BRING THE MUSIC CLASS TO LIFE!!!!

“I can’t find words to explain my gratitude to you, thank you…. Thanks for all the support, I hope when I play, that will make your ears fun!” -Luciano

“Thank you to Rachel, Melissa and Gueldy! With their help now I reading to play guitar.” -Wilka

 Help Keep the Music Alive!!! DONATE NOW to Project HOPE Art!


 

Photo Philanthropy Essay | Wings for Tacloban

Each year, PhotoPhilanthropy puts out a call for visually expressive photographic essays that tell the story of non-profits the world over. This year, Jamie Lloyd and I put together a joint essay about our time in Tacloban, Philippines.
Enjoy!

Soaring above your everyday struggles, free like a bird. It’s an idea we’ve all wished could come true in times of difficulty and stress. Fueled by generous donations, Artists Jamie Lloyd & Melissa Schilling (along with community organizer, Justin Victoria) were able to gift children (and their families) living in the tent cities and bunkhouses of the Tacloban disaster zone the ability to fly above their problems. Wings for Tacloban are imaginary art wings created for children.

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It has been one year since Typhoon Haiyan, the world’s biggest-ever storm to make landfall, struck the central Philippines – killing more than 5,200 people, displacing 4.4 million and destroying $547m in crops and infrastructure.
In Leyte Province, 70 to 80 percent of the area was destroyed. Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, where five-metre waves flattened nearly everything in their path, suffered more loss of life than any other Philippine city. Outside the town centre, in a hillside cemetery, city workers have dug a mass gravesite which stretches along 100 metres.
Much of Tacloban has been turned to rubble, leaving many survivors homeless and dependent on aid.
Visiting the city, it is clear that – despite the help of the international community – it will take a very long time for the town to recover.

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About the Bunkhouses of Tacloban
The bunkhouses are made of corrugated sheets, plywood and coco lumber and measure
8.64 square meters. 27 Bunkhouses in the San Jose District of Tacloban with water and electricity have been completed as of April 1, 2014. Another 66 remain to be built and equipped with basic necessities. Each bunkhouse has 24 units, although big families are given two units. The partition per unit was collapsed to accommodate bigger families.
We be painted broken down concrete walls, plywood, an old kitchen wall — with chalkboard paint in a variety of colors. Once dry, we cured the walls and armed the occupants of the bunkhouses with chalk. We hope to encourage creative thinking and hope.
Close to 2 million families were affected by the weather disturbance, considered to be the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall. 30 countries have already pledged financial and humanitarian aid amounting to 2.366 billion to victims of super typhoon Yolanda.

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Artist Statement
The Wings: Project HOPE Art is an art collective that responds to disaster with pencils, paints, music and imagination. We want to remind the children of Tacloban that they can overcome obstacles by gifting them the power to fly with wings. These wings do not just live on the chalkboard or wall. These wings belong to them and will allow them to fly and rise up above their problems, environment and situations. They should use their wings not just to solve their own problems but those issues facing their communities at large.
Nothing can stop a large group of living angels.
The project outcomes are multi-leveled.

In the simplest terms children are encouraged to have a fun portrait snapped, printed and handed over. A memory to serve as a reminder to overcome obstacles and head towards dreams and goals. Our mobile printing studio was set-up onsite inside the tent cities and bunk houses. Children watched as each digital image was edited on smart phones and ipads and then sent to the mini-printer. A 4X6 image was spit out seconds later.

In addition to print portrait images, community message boards were created and left behind in every area. A frank discussion was started amongst parents, teachers, community organizers and children regarding their personal paths since Hurricane Yolanda. Lessons were taught about transforming simple, everyday ingredients into action-based toolkits.
We painted everything from a de-constructed kitchen wall in the No-Build Zone to the shell of a school classroom in Palo. We created double sided chalkboards with plywood. We painted over graffiti with bright primary colors and created sleek, glossy spaces to draw, write and dream.

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See our Wings Art Project in Haiti, featured in School Arts Magazine: http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/141579/54

Thank You | Left Coast Power Yoga

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A big thank you to our friends at Left Coast Power Yoga who hosted a fundraiser for us on Saturday night. A special thanks to Andrew Abrass for donating a trumpet and trombone for our 2014/15 Music Class.

We made $460 in one magical evening. Hooray!
Project HOPE Art is excited to announce the RHYTHM & RECYCLING workshop this fall to kick off the Music + Art Lab at the Project HOPE Art Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti!

Interested in donating Musical Instruments?
Click Here!

This November 2014, Bay Area artists Rachel Znerold and Melissa Schilling will travel to Haiti to collaborate with art teacher and musician Gueldy Rene on a week-long children’s music and art program —a multi-dimensional music, costuming and performance workshop, all inspired by and using recycled materials. Gueldy Rene will work with the students to learn the foundations of rhythm, beat, flow and connection, creating a musical composition with their motley array of recycled instruments (PVC Pipe Drums and 2Liter Bottle Horns), alongside donated ukeleles, guitars, kazoos, accordians, and traditional RaRa and Konpa instruments. Rachel Znerold, supported by other members of Project HOPE Art, plans to lead the students through a musical costume workshop, creating sound-making outfits and props out of recycled materials—imagine bottle-cap-string skirts jingling and plastic bag dresses swooshing, while all feet are tap-tapping to the beat of the musical accompaniment.