This november I'm going to Guayaquil, Ecuador for six whole months to work for Charlotte Miller Art Project (UK registered charity 1064645).
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.
Sue Miller, Project founderArt – creating it, sharing the effect it has, is one of the most powerful languages there is.
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!
