Tag: earthquake

The Traveling Rainbow Cabinet of Fun

Melissa Schilling Join the Team, Partners, Thank Yous, Visual Storytelling

pha-art-center_final-concept_b-1-e1355946878102 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.

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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.

857808_10152525576805567_1944484788_oFor 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

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    Haiti Five Years Later: Women on the Ground

    Melissa Schilling Fundraiser, Haitian Culture/Language, Partners, Visual Storytelling

    For just $10 you can hear the powerful words of four incredible women.
    Join us as we inspire, educate and present: Haiti!

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    Tue, Dec 2 2014 – 6:30pm
    Malya Villard-Appolon, Founder of KOFAVIV
    Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, Ph.D., Former Prime Minister of Haiti
    Nicole Phillips, Esq., Attorney for the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
    Megan Coffee, M.D., Ph.D., Founder of Ti Kay Haiti

    “Gason konn bouke, men pa fanm.”—in Kreyòl
    “Women’s work never ends.”

    On January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit by a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake, killing approximately 150,000 people and crippling the nation. The earthquake and its 52 aftershocks exacerbated longstanding challenges of housing, sanitation, health care and gender violence. Five years later, Haiti is still picking up the pieces, often with women leading the charge. Hear the incredible stories of women on the ground, from Dr. Megan Coffee who went to Haiti to treat earthquake victims and never left, establishing and running a tuberculosis clinic in Port-au-Prince, to Malya Villard, a victim of rape in Haiti who boldly founded and now runs KOFAVIV to uplift victims of sexual violence, despite threats against her life for doing so.
    Tickets Here

    Learn More about This Event on December 2nd, 2014:
    CC Site: http://bit.ly/Haiti-info

    Facebook: http://bit.ly/Haiti-fb

    EventBrite: http://bit.ly/Haiti-EB

    Sponsor a Student in 2014

    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.
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    Make a $75 Donation to cover books, transportation and lunches for a student for a semester.
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    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!)
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    Make a $150 Donation to cover English lessons (including books, transportation and lunches) for an entire year for one student.
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    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.
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    $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.
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    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.

    gardening program and the art + botany lab

    Melissa Schilling Urban Agriculture

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    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

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    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

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    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.

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

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

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    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!)