February Issue 2000
International Art Event Promotes World Peace Through Art Exchange
The fourth biennial Global Art Project (GAP) invites people from around the world to join together in a multicultural celebration of peace expressed through art.
Beginning in Mar. 2000, individuals and groups
will create art expressing their personal visions of global unity
for display in the participants' local communities. During the
week of Apr. 23-30, these newly created art works will travel
from one person to another - resulting in thousands of messages
of peace and friendship simultaneously encircling the Earth. The
Global Art Project headquarters will organize the world-wide exchange
by linking registrants on-to-one, or group-to-group. GAP participants
are invited to create their ideas of global unity in any medium
that can be sent from one person or group to another. This includes
visual or literary art and audio or video tapes. The art each
participant sends is a "gift of global friendship" for
the artist in another part of the world to keep. Likewise, the
art each participant receives is his or hers to keep.
The Global Art Project is a grass roots effort with the direction
of founder Katherine Josten, an Arizona artist. Project volunteers
and supporters believe that the Global Art Project helps to fulfill
the need for new approaches to global stability. It focuses on
the value of the arts as a pathway to understand the world as
it is and to imagine how it might be. The Global Art Project connects
people of diverse cultural backgrounds, providing exposure to
new ideas and a feeling of connection to the whole.
Since the first Global Art Project exchange in 1994, the project has successfully united over 30,000 participants on six continents. Participating groups have included art councils, artist cooperatives, choral and dance groups, churches, environmental organizations and community groups. Many schools in locations around the world have participated involving thousands of students from kindergarten through graduate school. Today, the project continues to promote World Peace by connecting people of diverse cultural backgrounds, providing exposure to new ideas and a feeling of connection to the whole. In the words of one 10 year-old participant, "I drew a picture of the Earth, and then a bunch of different types of people - short, tall, black, white - holding hands around the world. Holding hands is a sign of peace. People can't fight if they're holding hands."
Global Art Project Photos: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4
So, how do you participate?
Step One: Send your name, address, and donation ($15 US for individuals, $20 US for groups) to GAP postmarked by Feb. 14, 2000. GAP will match you with a participant in another part of the world.
Step Two: During the month of Mar. create a work of art expressing your vision of global unity. You may take a slide of the art and of the people who created it to be included in the GAP Slide Bank. Label the slide with name, address, medium, size and indicate the top. Send it to the GAP address. Slides will not be returned.
Step Three: Between Apr. 1 - 22 display/share your work locally in your own community. This could be on the walls at work or school, in a hospital, a public library, gallery, bank. local café or restaurant - wherever you feel comfortable sharing your vision. You may want to join together with a group of participants to find a place where you can display your work together.
Step Four: Between Apr. 23 - 30 exchange your art with the person in another part of the world with whom you have been matched. The art you receive will be yours to keep, and likewise, the art you send off will be kept as a gift of global friendship. It would be nice to include a photo of yourself and a personal note.
Step Five: And finally, as a completion of the Global Art Project, you may choose to display the art which you have received so that the people in your community will have an opportunity to experience the diverse visions of global unity from around the world.
Registration for participation must be postmarked by Feb. 14, 2000.
The Global Art Project is seeking donations to help support the 2000 exchange. The GAP will be happy to receive any contribution, but with a donation of $25-99 you will become a Contributor; $100-499 a Supporter; $500-999 a Sponsor; $1,000-9,999 a Benefactor; and $10,000 and above an Angel. A book of thirty full-color postcards Visions of Global Unity: Inspired Images from the Global Art Project is available with all proceeds being used to support the project. (We have images from the book of postcards on our website at www.CarolinaArts.com) For more information about the Global Art Project or the book, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Global Art Project, PO Box 40445, Tucson, AZ 85717; 520/628-8353; e-mail to (josten@concentric.net) or visit the GAP website at (http://www.global-art.org).
Global Art Project Photos: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4
Editor's Note: I was first introduced to this project by Jessica Claydon, owner of Touchstone Gallery in Hendersonville, NC. She has participated in the project and shared some of the general information about the project and some of her own personal experience. Claydon was matched one year with a young boy from Taipei, Taiwan. From Hendersonville, NC, USA to Taipei, Taiwan - thousands and thousands of miles apart and totally different parts of the world. Now that's what I call a global exchange.
What do you know about Taipei? Is it a third-world country or one of the Tigers of the Pacific Rim? What language do they speak there? What kind of life could they have there compared to us - compared to living in Hendersonville, NC? Well, this young boy lived in a modern high-rise apartment building in a city of several million people. His parents were both professionals, he took art and music lessons after school, could speak English and his father could write in English (something I have a hard time doing). I'm sure that every young boy in Taiwan didn't share the same life as this boy did, but then, not everyone in the USA owns their own art gallery and gets to live in the hills of Hendersonville. Art is universal - take some time this month to reach out and send your art sailing around the globe and see what bounces back. It might not bring global peace tomorrow, but it sure might give you some peace of mind knowing that others out there are inspired by art too.
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