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CRAFTING PEACE
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Launch of CRAFTING PEACE at Maker Faire Africa 2010 huge success
14/09/2010
On August 27 and 28 of the year 2010 CRAFTING PEACE launched at Maker Faire Africa (MFA), Nairobi. The launch was a huge success! Ten works from artists all over the world where exhibited at the beautiful University of Nairobi, the location of this year’s MFA event. One hundred children enjoyed our creative workshops and shared their thoughts on compassion and peace while crafting their own wonderful bird.
Getting started
One week before the launch of CRAFTING PEACE at MFA, the team arrived in Nairobi to prepare. It was our first time in Nairobi, and therefore we got a lot of help from local people. Together with them we went out to collect local materials for building the exhibition and decoration materials for the creative workshops. Our suppliers ranged from typical small shops next to the roads at the border of the city to huge supermarkets, and from restaurants providing us with recycled materials like bottle tops to tailors selling us their left-overs of fabrics. Next to that, we enjoyed a meeting with Patrick Mukabi (Kenyan artist and one of the co-leaders of the workshops) at his inspiring gallery at the Godown Arts center. To prepare for the official workshops at MFA, together with him we also tried out a workshop with some children in Mukuru. These children were very true-hearted and committed to the workshop program. The day before MFA we build up the event site and met with the volunteers that would assist during the launch. This day was very special because everyone was helping each other to make the whole event site as nice as possible. We were very happy with the site for the CRAFTING PEACE activities to be organized: a big but cosy tent for the workshops and a good looking outdoor exhibition space in the middle of the event area.
The exhibition
We represented ten artists from different countries all over the world. Each artist took the time to reflect on his or her own insights into compassion and peace and used that for inspiration to create a CRAFTING PEACE bird. The birds were exhibited outdoors, in the middle of the event area. Each artist had its own shelve on which both the artwork and the compelling story behind it were shown. This way the visitors walking through the exhibition could take a close look at all of the wonderful BIRDS and their stories.
The ten artists
From Afghanistan: Boumi Co. – from Bangladesh: Hiranmay Chanda – from Brazil: Fatima de Faria – from Cambodia: Linda Saphan – from Kenya: Patrick Mukabi – from Rwanda: Gloria Kamanzi Uwizera – from Senegal: Mamadou Tall Diedhiou – from Colombia: Lina Sinisterra – from The Netherlands: Jo Luymes & Jola Hesselberth.
The children’s workshops
Each day we held two workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each workshop provided place for about 20 children. However, these workshops were so popular that in the end, the CRAFTING PEACE team managed to welcome a total of 100 children (instead of 80). The children came from all different directions of Nairobi. On Friday the 27th of August we welcomed a group from Kawangware and another group from Kibera. On Saturday the 28th of August a group from children’s home ‘Seeds in His garden’, a group of boys from the Red Eagles soccer team from Mukuru, and a school class from Mukuru were welcomed. All children were accompanied by their own helpful guards. Next to the groups that we invited, also some children of MFA visitors participated spontaneously.
Co-lead by two professional artists, Patrick Mukabi from Kenya and Jola Hesselberth from The Netherlands, the workshops enabled Kenyan children to craft their own contribution to compassion.
After a peaceful meditation lead by Jola, the children wrote down their thoughts about compassion and peace. Thereafter, the CRAFTING PEACE team provided them with nicely designed cardboard birds to decorate. Patrick and Jola inspired them with lots of different examples, based on a range of different materials and techniques. To materialize the children’s ideas all different materials were used, such as: paint, beautiful beads, and recycled fabrics.
The workshops were all about making something beautiful and about working with compassion and peace. Each workshop ended with lots of enthusiastic children showing their wonderful creations and sharing their stories with each other.
A big thanks
In this way, we would like to thank all the people that contributed to the successful launch of CRAFTING PEACE: all of the artists, the enthusiastic young workshop participants and their helpful guards, volunteers, and a special thanks to Maker Faire Africa for hosting.
For more information check: www.craftingpeace.com
