"The Healing Power of Art" exhibit in Washington DC

"Haiti's first lady Elisabeth Preval visits the Smithsonian's Ripley Center where a display of paintings and drawings made by Haiti's children after the earthquake is being exhibited, in Washington, on Thursday, June 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)"

Read more at the Washington Examiner:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/96583869.html#ixzz0uvmbYS4Y

Today I was in Washington D.C. to once again take in the museums. I visited the National Museum of African Art specifically to see the show "The Healing Power of Art: Works of Art by Haitian Children after the earthquake. To get to it, enter The Smithsonian's Ripley Center ( the fancy kiosk-like building) between the red Smithsonian Castle and The Freer Gallery, go down 3 floors, and you're there.

I was blown away by the sequined "drapo" of the actual Haitian flag. You really must see it in person. There was a large collaborative painting on canvas by the children as well as individual works. The outreach also included the opportunity for children to engage in the performing arts, which can be very cathartic for the performer as well as the audience.

Here is the link to the show and the show summary.

New Heart Ornaments: How far does $5 go in Haiti?

photo credit: Emmanuel Midi, from "Haiti's New Demolition Business" on insidedisaster.com

(ceramic ornaments) hearts created by patapsco middle school students

Just yesterday, I dropped off more hearts to The Sideshow at The American Visionary Arts Museum. Included in yesterday's delivery were some much larger hearts that had been turned into whimsical hanging ornaments with wire, sequins, ribbon and cool beads and charms. We did this for the holiday season on '09, and they quickly sold for $5 each. I liked the metaphor of $5 being a typical weekly wage for the lowest paid adults in Haiti (and for 1/3 of the world's population.) However, I recently read an article published online by The Miami Herald that Haitian adults are being paid an average of $5 per day to help clean up from the earthquake.

Think about that for a minute....

Only five dollars for hours upon hours of backbreaking work in 100+ degree heat with no provisions of food or water or any guarantee of safety. Five months after the earthquake, the sheer quantity of concrete rubble is an enormous hurdle to reconstruction. There are precious few pieces of big, working construction equipment available. One estimate given by the Miami Herald is that there are 13 million cubic feet of rubble to deal with.

How does one deal with that?

Well, if you want to earn $5 per day, you pick up a sledgehammer, break up bigger pieces of concrete into smaller pieces of concrete, load them by hand--no gloves--in the hot sun onto the back of a regular pick up truck, then repeat ad infinitum. Add to that the reality that human remains--lost loved ones, men, women, children, citizens of Haiti--are still slowly being found via this process--and that of course, everything must stop to tend to such sad discoveries (unfortunately often this protocol doesn't even take place)---and one is left realizing that estimates of over a decade just to dig out if current procedure continues start to seem very realistic. Get an inside look here.

So it is with respect to the survivors of the quake who are toiling in this way that we decided to offer the ornaments again. It feels so small sometimes, but there is so much heart behind what the students in Maryland have been doing to try to help.

As always, absolutely 100% of the proceeds go to Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti.