“We Are ART is a collaborative learning opportunity for children around the world to connect and make art together. Children love to make art. Children love to learn about the world. Children love to learn about other kids living in far-away places. We are each born with a healthy curiosity about the world, about the future, about other cultures and languages. Imagine using art to explore universal concepts such as: dreams, hopes, fears, and the future – these themes are important to children. This opportunity well help the children learn that they have much in common regardless of where they live.
When geographic and cultural barriers are removed, children can become more engaged world citizens, and more aware of issues they might hear about. These children will truly become “artists without borders.”
This is the path to peace, to awareness: by expressing and sharing ideas that are important to them, children will learn problem solving skills they will find important in a world requiring collaborative thinking and teamwork. Our “global village” continues to shrink and be more interconnected, ever more crowded, a place where climate change and access to shared resources will be a growing source of conflict.
Peace through art is not a new idea, although it is an abstract concept to many. This collaborative art initiative will provide specific and useful learning experiences and new friendships to last a lifetime.
How does it work?
1. Two children’s art programs (“teams”) will be linked together in a collaborative art project.
2. The children participating should be approximately the same age.
3. One team of children will be sponsored by Artists Without Borders and located in a developing region, in a community that lacks robust learning infrastructure.
4. The second team will be located in a developed country. The linking of these children will provide unique and exciting opportunities for them to interact and learn from one another.
5. The type of art project should be chosen based on what is agreeable to both teams. The least complicated project would be a mural: each team will complete half a mural and then send the work to the other team for completion. Each team will choose a theme for their mural; the teams will not be expected to choose the same theme.
A few examples for themes:
“this is my home”
“we love nature”
“our hope for the future”
When a team receives the half completed mural from the other team, they will complete the mural by referring to the theme chosen for that mural.
6. The completed art can be kept by each team. The art should be signed by the artists. Photographs and video can be used to document the artis progress of the art. This information can be shared among the children using various webbased
applications.
7. Other collaborative (but more complex) We Are ART projects could be:
- A story book where one team composes the first chapter then sends (emails) the chapter to the other team – the other team will write the next chapter – this cycle will continue until the “story” is complete. (translation will be required) The story can eventually be illustrated by the kids.
- A collection of photos with attached stories
- A collaborative song (or poem) that could be put to music
For enquires on how to participate please contact:
Brian Hardie, Brian.hardie@gmail.com, www.theartistswithoutborders.org”
-submitted by Brian Hardie, We Are ART
