One Month in...

One month in... already?!  Apparently so.  I'm still getting increasingly excited about working here, our project planning and everything else to come!


Don't think I've been ignoring you for a whole month, it's not like that... there has simply been no time, honest!  Well, we decided to come a few weeks early, and squeeze in some intensive Spanish lessons in Quito before heading down to Guayaquil to set up camp at CMAP Ecuador.


Five hours a day of Spanish lessons is exactly what it claims to be - intensive!  Brains frazzled, lungs a little shocked by the altitude, 8pm bedtimes, it took us two weeks to have our first beer.  Quito is surrounded by beautiful mountains that taunted me something terrible, I think I have finally conceeded, thanks to Ecuadors great metropolises, i'm not much of a city girl!  We did make it to the mountains though, 5000 metres up one particular mountain to be precise.  Cotopaxi, a live volcano, and at 5000 metres is the first glacier.  I WILL make it to the summit of a mountain before I leave Ecuador, that I promise you (myself).

Chloe, Cotopaxi and I

Now we are here! Well and truly enveloped in CMAP and JUCONI and Guayaquil.  Back at sea level, breathing normally, but sweating a considerable amount more.  We have spent a week here now, shadowing the current CMAP Art Educators, Helen and Ericka, and, most excitingly, planning what's next to come - when we hold the reigns in January!!!


Thankfully Chloe (my partner CMAPer) and I get along well.  With similar ideas, similar work ethics, the same endearing, youthful naivity. You won't stop us!  Chloe has a degree in Community Arts from LIPA - meaning she has 3 years training and experience in how to be a facilitator, which is superb, and I can learn a lot from her!


To be continued.....

ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY POUNDS!!!

That is the total profit from the print auction!! 

£1,190!!

The exhibition wall displaying the work of Matt Wright, Matt Crawford, Kirill Smolyakov, Keith Blundell, Tobey Cameron,  Alex Studer, Sue Milverton, Chris George, John Bulmer, Michal Iwanowski, Simon Whitehead, Mark Simmons, Chiarra Tocci, Nigel Watts, Chris Joyce, John Hannah, Noel Faucett, Thomas Palmer, Daniel Lillie, Justin Quinnell, Tom Farmer, Phill Downes, Will Hartley, Lynsey Smith, Archie Miles, Sam Mason, Laura Montag, Lynn Weddle, Nicky Saunter and Martin Parr.
More photos of the night coming soon!

To be spent on photographic materials (films, paper, printing and processing) - meaning we can now afford to run a brilliant project!! :) 

The auction was a big sucess thanks to;

- Somerset Print house (www.somersetprinthouse.co.uk)

- Harry Rook and Alex Studer for hanging the entire exhibition

- Rosena Powell for being the best auctioneer we could have had!

- James Sargeant, Vicky Baldwin and Cassie Ashbridge for helping on the night

- Chiquitos for supplying 24 free bottles of wine! 

This beautiful print donated by John Bulmer sold for a deserving £135!

Harry hanging the final print on the wall

The best Auctioneer and Spotter I could have hoped for - Miss Rosena Powell and Mr James Sargeant, Muchas Gracias!!

Thank y'all for coming!

SOLD! Mr William Hartley's superb photograph from the award winning series 'In Between Dreams', for £59!

Charity Print Auction for CMAP

This is it!  My final fundraising event... all the proceeds from the night will go toward materials for Participatory Photography with street children in Ecuador.  


I need to make enough money from this night to pay for all the film processing and printing during workshops... this money is not included in my fundraising total of £4290... The photography materials aren't included in that total so I'm going the extra mile to ensure we can afford to run some great workshops & afford to have a final exhibition!

35 of the best photographers from the South West have donated prints to be auctioned on the night... some of the prints are worth over £200!!

Martin Parr has donated a signed copy of his book Small World for auction on the night - worth over £100.

CHIQUITO are poviding South American beers and wines to keep thirsts quenched and encourage generous bidding!

IKEA have provided all of the frames for free, all prints are sold including frame.

Somerset Print House have printed most of the images for the auction (www.somersetprinthouse.co.uk)

Bi-lingual (Spanish/English) auctioneering by the beautiful and entertaining Miss Rosena Pow Pow!!

A beautifully benevolent gift

A couple of months ago Molly and I (and our cream tea fundraising) were featured in a local Reading paper... this article prompted the lovely Ms Della Henry to get in touch with me and ask more about the Participatory Photography project.

Della has been a photography enthusiast for years and gathered quite a collection of wares in her time... when I visited Della for a cuppa she offered me a HUGE box of cameras and accessories, which is worth a lot of money altogether! 

Della doesn't photograph anymore and she'd like them to go to good use, she suggested I sell some for fundriasing and possibly use a couple of SLRs for workshops in Ecuador.  

I am blown away by this generosity from a complete stranger, and the strength of this message about photography - this lady believes as strongly as I do that photography is a worthwhile practice for young people in need of confidence and community.  

THANK YOU DELLA!! You have proved that benevolence isn't a myth... just when I was begining to lose faith!!  

The box was harbouring some real treats - including a Canon AE-1 plus Canon lenses, plenty of Hoya polarizing filter, a Brownie flash and Ross Enisgn Ful-Vue... and much more!  

Cream Teas For Charity... Round 3!

We had a lot of cake and scones leftover from Bishops Lydeard Party in the Park... and so my beautiful and wonderful friend Rosena Powell packed a few up and took them to flog on her lunch break at work! 

She made an amazing £40 in one hour!  What a star - thank you Rosie!

Cream Teas For Charlotte Miller art Project...Round 2

I took my camper Molly, a 1965 Bedford Debonair, to help out selling cakes on Saturday at Bishops Lydeard Party in the Park near Taunton, she lapped up all the attention!

Thanks to Mol, and the wonderfully enthusiastic sales pitch and over time from Rosie Powell, we sold a fair few cups of tea and slices of cake!

Big THANK YOU!!! to Rose Farm Somerset for donating the delicious strawberry jam and to Somerset Local Food Direct for donating the milk and Midway Farm clotted cream that topped off the scones perfectly!

£81.80 raised!

Cream Teas for Charlotte Miller Art Project... Round 1

With great thanks to Nick & Hazel at The Flowing Spring (http://theflowingspringpub.co.uk/) in Playhatch nr Reading for a fantastic Fundraising Fete!  They offered thirty charities the opportunity to set up fundraising stalls for a whole weekend for free, and put on a barbeque and music - more pubs need to do this!!!

Since the pub is in Reading Molly the van couldn't make it, but the gazebo did just fine.

SO, with 6kg of flour, 50 eggs, 2.5kg sugar and two days in the kitchen I made and sold 2 lemon drizzle cakes, 2 chocolate cakes, 1 MASSIVE victoria sponge, 1 MASSIVE chocolate 'guess the weight of the cake' sponge, 1 coffee and walnut cake and 120 scones!!!

Fundraising total from my bake-athon is...

£158.75 !!!

Forays into Fundraising...

         The total cost of making these workshops happen is £4,290.  To my mind this is an incredibly scary amount of money!  But, when I consider that this amount will enable six months of art workshops, five days a week, helping over 120 children, I suppose it's not a lot!  

   

         I am putting £2,200 of my own money into this project.   This amount covers my personal travel, visa and language training costs.  I am saving as hard as I can and selling my car (in October) to reach my personal target of £2,200.

            I decided to fundraising for the remaining £2,090!  After a couple of months of feeling shy and embarrassed, my colleagues and confidants at Charlotte Miller Art Project persuaded me that public fundraising is the best way to raise money and raise awareness for the charity.  The ‘pep talk’ from the lovely Lynn, Chloe and Jenny persuaded me that people will want to support me in this venture, and want to be more informed about the problems in Latin America and the potential of Participatory Arts for children and young people.  SO, I finally bit my tongue, swallowed my pride and got money making!!

  

          Firstly, I sent some letters out to friends and family, explaining the project and pleading for support.  The response I have received has been overwhelming and I want to say a huge blog THANK YOU to everybody who has responded with help.  And yes, I got a wonderful, generous £935 of cold hard cash for the workshops! And I also received letters and texts with words of encouragement and advice, gleaming personal references (necessary to send to CMAP before my employment) and catch up letters from estranged friends… Thank you all!  All donations were sent through my Just Giving;

www.justgiving.com/Rachel-Lowe

     

       Secondly, I decided to capitalise on my campervan.  Molly the (1965 Bedford) van is being used as a vehicle for ‘Good Golly Cream  Teas For Charity’… touring the South West in summer 2011, raising funds for CMAP by selling scones! (Homemade scones!)

www.facebook.com/goodgollycreamteas

            Thirdly, I searched and searched for trusts and funds that might support this project – and came up with 14 to write to.  They all received personal letters, my personal reference, CV and a letter of support from Sue Miller.  So far I have had one rejection letter and two rejection emails…but I have also had a good meeting over tea and cake with the lovely people from The Lions Club Reading…and I wait with baited breath to see if they have decided to support this project financially.  As for the other ten – fingers crossed I’ll hear from them soon!

Voy a Ecuador!

This november I'm going to Guayaquil, Ecuador for six whole months to work for Charlotte Miller Art Project (UK registered charity 1064645).

www.cmap.org.uk

In Ecuador I will be working as an Arts Educator, running participatory art and photography workshops with street kids that live and work in the slum sectors of Guayaquil city.  

This blog will record my progress and the progress of the project...and for the time being, from here until November, I will be writing all about my forays with fundraising!

First things first, I suppose I need to tell you what it's all about...

...WHAT IS CMAP?

Charlotte Miller Art Project is a tiny, wonderful charity that is bringing Participatory Arts to vulnerable, street working children in Ecuador.  They work with a local Guayaquilian charity called JUCONI (Juntos con los ninos; Together with the children).  JUCONI work with street-working children and their families to resolve family issues and get children out of street-life and into education.  CMAP provide participatory arts workshops to supplement the JUCONI programme. 

96% of JUCONI/CMAP participants integrate into mainstream education, many for the first time

...WHAT IS 'PARTICIPATORY ART'?

This term seems a little scary and zeitgeist, but it provides an important distinction from teaching.  In participatory arts we all participate, are involved, and have control.  

Art – creating it, sharing the effect it has, is one of the most powerful languages there is.

Sue Miller, Project founder
Participatory Art can help young people by;
 - providing individuals with a new form of communication  - help them learn to express themselves- increase confidence and self worth- provide transferable skills for education and work place- improve social skills and interaction- help build community- provides a constant, reliable, weekly group- a space to have fun!

...WHY ECUADOR?

I didn't start out with any destination plans, the priority for me was always the charity.  I spent a year researching charities, considering and contemplating - I wanted to know they do good participatory work, that they are selective and competitive in who they employ, and that their ethics are in all the right places and uncompromised by big corporate sponsors!  And when I found Charlotte Miller Art Project I cried with joy...

 My attitude is that there are children and young people everywhere who could benefit from participatory arts workshops, from someone providing them the space and respect to express themselves.  

I have worked with young people in the UK and Bosnia Herzegovina.  I suppose I have affinities to some places that have been present in the media during my lifetime, to troubles I have watched from afar.  Bosnia was one of these places for me.  South America is another.  

And I need the Spanish practice!