22440: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Seaside town in Haiti takes high artistic aim (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Jun. 20, 2004


Seaside town in Haiti takes high artistic aim

By LARRY LUXNER

Special to The Herald


JACMEL, Haiti - In early March, a few days after armed rebels forced Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office, vandals ransacked a
Port-au-Prince art museum and burned dozens of paintings along with 86 rare
vodou dolls that were part of an exhibit marking the country's 200th
anniversary of independence.

''It was such a shame,'' said prominent Haitian artist Patrick NarBal
Boucard. ``A lot of important works were destroyed.''

Yet here in the picturesque coastal town of Jacmel, art is being created,
not plundered.

On Feb. 14, just two weeks before Aristide's fall, Boucard inaugurated a
contemporary, 2,000-square-foot gallery at his evolving Centre d'Art de
Jacmel (known in Creole as Fondation Sant d'A Jakmel). The gallery is part
of a bigger fund-raising project aimed at keeping Haiti's rich artistic
heritage alive in the face of continuing political and economic chaos.

''We've had no problem here for the simple reason that Jacmel is not as
divided, and there's not as much hate here as in the rest of the country,''
said Boucard. ``We have very good relations with the community, and we don't
even need security, because people protect our space.''

That space is a renovated 8,000-square-foot brick warehouse that was used to
sort and stock coffee in the 19th century, when Jacmel was a booming port
city and its famous gingerbread houses were built.

The back of the two-story Centre d'Art faces Jacmel's fishing wharf and the
Caribbean Sea. Inside, space has been arranged to accommodate 10 studios for
art students, and 10 for visiting artists.

Boucard, a 47-year-old Jacmel native, grew up in Haiti and Mexico, studied
art in England and served for a time in the U.S. Navy. He says his goal is
to upgrade the quality of art in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

LOSING CREDIBILITY

''Haitian art is losing its credibility around the world, for a few
reasons,'' he said. ``Because of market forces and economic difficulties,
artists here tend to paint what sells. They're selling mostly stereotyped
Haitian art -- mass-produced market scenes, vodou scenes and landscapes.
It's diluting creativity.''

Boucard spoke in his cluttered Jacmel studio as he smoked Marlboros and
sipped Barbancourt rum, which aside from art is Haiti's most famous export.
His words were nearly drowned out by an electric fan and by roosters crowing
in the courtyard below.

''Haiti has changed a lot in the last 50 years, but that's not reflected in
the art,'' he complained. ``What's being painted are decorative pieces
rather than an expression relevant to the changes in the country. Artists
are not really expressing themselves. There is no cutting edge, no
avant-garde. We're not creating things anymore.''

Part of the problem, he said, is that ``artists don't have a support system.
They don't have schools, they don't have access to markets.''

The Centre d'Art hopes to address those shortcomings. Initially, it will
start with 11 young Haitians studying only painting, but Boucard says
``we'll expand every year and add a new discipline: film, sculpture,
photography, printmaking and vodou flagmaking.''

Students pay a symbolic fee equivalent to $3 a month. They also pay the
center a small commission on sales of their work. In return, they receive
materials, support and exposure.

''We plan to demystify art, by organizing tours for the local schools,''
said Boucard, who speaks English and Spanish in addition to his native
French and Creole. ``For the inauguration of our art gallery, we did a
photographic exhibition of Jacmel. We went around town, taking pictures of
over 100 people. When they came to the show, we gave them a small picture of
themselves. The reaction was fantastic.''

Among other things, the Centre d'Art will help aspiring Haitian artists sell
their work on the Internet, via the center's own website. And the gallery
will be open every day and staffed by the students.

That alone could lure more cruise ships to Jacmel, since more and better art
will be available for passengers to buy, thereby giving a boost to the
stagnant local economy.

While Boucard concedes that such tourists are more likely to go for cheap,
mass-produced paintings than avant-garde works of art, he doesn't see a
paradox.

``I am not against stereotyped art, because that also exists in every
society. But art with a discourse is lacking. That's what everything
trickles down from, including the decorative arts,`` he said.

Next month, Boucard's organization will sponsor a Jacmel Film Festival,
featuring more than 50 Haitian films in six venues, in honor of the
country's bicentennial.

NEEDS $150,000

In order to make his dream come true, Boucard needs to raise $150,000. So
far, he and his South African wife, co-founder Kate Tarratt Cross, have
spent $50,000 of their own money and have collected $40,000 from outside
sources.

To come up with the remaining $60,000, the couple has formed a Miami-based
nonprofit organization, Hybrid Art Centers; the group recently sponsored a
fund-raising event at Tap Tap, a South Beach restaurant specializing in
Haitian cuisine.

''We're hoping that by being a nonprofit organization, we'll get discounts
on canvas, paints and ink, and exemption on duties,'' said Boucard, adding
that ``we're totally independent. We have nothing to do with the
government.''

Florence Bellande Robertson is president of Foundation Hope for Haiti, a
nonprofit group in Pembroke Pines.

One of the art center's initial sponsors, she said her organization was
proud to add the Sant d'A Jakmel to the list of charities it has helped.

''Jacmel is bursting with talent, but woefully short on opportunities for
artists, both aspiring and established,'' said Robertson. ``What impressed
us the most [about the art center] was the widespread support of the project
in the Haitian artistic and private business sectors. For such a project to
work, it must have the support of the local community as well as generous
friends from all over the world.''

Patrick Slavin, a New York author who has written extensively on Haiti, said
it will be difficult for Boucard to raise the kind of money he needs without
help from foreign governments or NGOs. But he adds that the Centre d'Art de
Jacmel will be a godsend for the local economy.

``Jacmel's historic isolation from the turmoil in Port-au-Prince has done
wonders for the town. It's the only place that literally hasn't burned down
since Haitian independence,`` he said. ``Having this arts center in Jacmel
would be excellent for the future of Haitian culture.''

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