20902: (Chamberlain) Haiti's starving artists (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(Palm Beach Post, 28 March 04)

Haiti's starving artists

By Kathleen Chapman

As armed rebels swarmed Haiti's countryside to oust President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide last month, 20 street children tucked away in a small town were
putting on their first art exhibition.

Friends and neighbors came to a quiet art studio 50 miles south of
Port-au-Prince to ooh and aah over the papier-maché masks the children made
to celebrate Mardi Gras. Even in the middle of a violent rebellion, the
children beamed like any school kids showing off their work.

"They were so happy to say, 'Look, I made this mask,' " said their teacher,
Vladimir Simeon.

Most of the children have never been to school -- their parents are dead or
cannot afford to pay the tuition. Simeon found them, some as young as 6,
begging in the streets or washing cars for change.

Simeon is able to teach them painting and sculpture because of the work of
a Lake Worth businesswoman and her friends and associates around the United
States.

Judy Hoffman, the president of Profile Marketing Research, got involved
with the project by chance. She had collected Haitian art for several
years, decorating her home and office with sequined flags and brilliant
paintings, but had never visited the island.

When she made her first trip in 2003 she was stunned that such vibrant
paintings could come from such a barren place. Trash was piled in mud
alleyways, and the trees were stripped to make charcoal. Children begged
for scraps of chicken visitors left on the bones.

"I don't think a person can walk away from there and not feel that they
have to do something," Hoffman said. "How could you?"

So she began working with fellow collectors and artists to start an art
program for street children in the town of Jacmel, on the southern coast of
Haiti. Hoffman and the program's founder, Sandra Renteria of Colorado, put
up $500 each and sent letters to friends and family for money.
Acquaintances led them to Simeon to teach the children.

Though the Haitian constitution promises free public education, no
government has ever provided it. School fees of $6 to $10 a month, in
addition to the costs for supplies and uniforms, are out of reach for many
in a country where the per capita income is between $1 and $2 a day.

And so beginning in the fall, Simeon approached street children between the
ages of 6 and 11 in alleyways and slums. Some are orphans. Others are
homeless. Some have relatives who cannot afford to feed them.

Simeon asked the children if they ate every day. If they said no, he asked
them if they would like to eat lunch at the studio and learn to draw.

His group grew to about 20. Almost every day, he buses them to the studio
in Jacmel where they draw, paint and make masks from clay and papier-maché
-- and eat.

Hoffman smiles at the pictures that come back from Jacmel, showing huge
piles of beans and rice heaped in front of the small children.

The children's first drawings are simple, more middle school than great
masters. For now, the classes give the children something to look forward
to -- and a regular meal.

But the art instruction serves a much more serious purpose, Hoffman said.
More than half of Haiti's population is unemployed, and people earn money
for food by selling charcoal or washing cars. Haiti's artists make up a
strong middle class that can afford regular meals for their families.

In Port-au-Prince, art dealers sell paintings from clotheslines for a few
dollars. The street artists, who can't afford canvas, paint on rice bags or
old clothes, many sent to them from garage sales by relatives in South
Florida. Those with better supplies, who can find a market for paintings in
the U.S. and elsewhere, can make $5,000 a year, Simeon said.

The road between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel is bad, and the trip takes
several hours. So far, isolation has protected the town from violence
during the uprising. Pictures from the children's first exhibition show one
white visitor, dressed like a tourist. Hoffman said that a few visitors do
make their way to Jacmel, to buy art and see the town's crumbling colonial
buildings. If the children succeed, they might find international buyers,
she said.

Hoffman has help from her accountant, whose efforts earned the Art Creation
Foundation for Children federal status as a nonprofit organization. Its
budget is about $17,000 a year.

By the time school starts again in the fall, Hoffman wants to pay for the
children to be in class, not just the art program. The project, she said,
has made her an outspoken advocate and shameless fund-raiser.

"All of a sudden, I'm being very bold, because we have these children to
feed," she said.

Hoffman said she worries about future upheaval in the country but will
continue to push for help for the children.

"Come September, all of those children are going to be in school," she
said.