SKETCHES: October 2008
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below the SKETCHES Newsletter October 2008.
Kind regards
Brian Ward
SKETCHES - October 27, 2008, Volume 5 Number 6
The International Child Art Foundation’s Newsletter
Dear Friend,
It has been a busy time for us since our last newsletter of September 29th. Here are some developments that will interest you:
a) Katrina Children Exhibition in Sofia
Along the U.S. Gulf Coast and a week after Hurricane Katrina, children expressed their feelings through art under the ICAF Healing Arts Program. Some of the amazing works that resulted from the program are now on exhibition at the Central Military Club in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s Minister of Defense Dr. Nickolay Tsonev and U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria Nancy McEldowney opened the exhibition. I had the pleasure of having lunch with the minister and the ambassador in Sofia on September 23rd when I visited Bulgaria for 3 days. A day earlier I enjoyed the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Bulgaria’s independence held in the town of Veliko Tuknovo. I was invited to join the Minister of Defense to open the first kindergarten for military families in Plovdiv. I also had the honor to meet with H.H. Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, who became king of Bulgaria at the age of 9, spent 50 years in exile in Spain, and returned home to create and lead his own political party and was prime minister from 2002 to 2006. He was fascinated by our work to develop creativity and empathy through the arts and especially about neuroscientific research on mirror neurons.
b) World Cultural Economic Forum in New Orleans
The Katrina Exhibition also links Sofia to the WCEF in New Orleans, which begins on October 29th. This important international forum will make history by including a children and youth panel on cultural engagement. The panel will be part of the plenary session on October 30th, the first full day of the forum. The following ICAF Youth Members will be participating in the panel: Carmen Ortiz (Louisiana), Dianna Mazzone (New York), Fadhil Ahmad Qamar (Indonesia), Philbert Tiki Yong (Malaysia) and Ella Gordon-Latty (New Zealand). In addition, the Third Arts Olympiad winners from Mississippi (Nicholas Goyette), Texas (Stanislav Nedzelskyi) and Aruba (Maria-Fernanda Aguirre Broca). Finally, Cyrus Jalinous of Washington DC was recommended by principal of a leading DC public school as a non-ICAF representative on the panel. These young panelists will display their artistic talents and paint murals. I will also moderate an expert panel on How to Grow the Creative Workforce and we will host an exhibition as well at the forum.
c) Aspen Roundtable on Creative Industries in Washington DC
On October 8th I moderated a roundtable discussion on creative industries at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. Dr. Damien Pwono, Executive Director of the Aspen Global Initiative on Arts, Culture, and Society convened the meeting. Bill Ivey, former chairman of National Endowment of the Arts, and Bob Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts were among the discussants. Participants included Harriet Mayor Fulbright, former chair of the ICAF, and Dr. Edna Runnels Ranck, president of the U.S. National Committee of Organization Mondiale pour l’Education Prescolaire (OMEP).
d) Barrack Obama on Arts Education
You can watch the video of Senator Obama speaking to a school group in Wallingford, Pennsylvania about the benefits of arts education at www.myreadablefeast.com/
e) Creativity for Kids
Faber Castell’s Creativity for Kids is proud to partner with the ICAF to support opportunities for artistic expression for children around the world. Both organizations know that great things happen when children have access to art and craft materials that allow them to have open-ended creative experiences that positively impact self-esteem. Creativity for Kids new preschool line of products, Creativity for Little Kids, sets the stage for children to enjoy a lifetime of creative expression, and the company will donate 5% of the proceeds from the sale of these preschool products to the ICAF in support of ICAF’s commitment to bringing art into the lives of children and their families. To purchase a “Creativity for Little Kids” product for your pre-schooler, visit www.creativityforkids.com to find a store near you.
Many thanks for your support.
Creatively yours,
Ashfaq Ishaq, Ph.D.
Executive Director
1 202 530 1000