Children’s art makes friends and inspires creativity across borders

Written by Writer on Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Children’s art makes friends and inspires creativity across borders

RATHSARAN SIREEKAN

Churaipon C. Klaijumlang. PHOTOS: INGSONG PARNDEJ

Quite undeniably, when the subject of art is brought up, the image that often comes to mind is of a self-absorbed artist locking himself in a secluded studio, fixing his eyes hard and taking pride in nothing but the creation in front of him; he has become the artwork and the artwork has become him and there is no one else.

But with Socorrito Diaz, who pioneered the A World United through Art project, art has found a different voice; there are always a lot of people around, especially the children who are at the centre of this programme, which uses art to promote friendship and understanding beyond borders.

In 1993, Socorrito, teaching art in Puerto Rico, felt disconnected from the rest of the world and wondered what other art teachers elsewhere were doing with their children. Coincidentally, during that term break, she joined a summer course at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and met colleagues from many countries. It was there where the first art exchange took place.

“I first asked my friends from Australia and Japan to send us some of their students’ drawings and when my kids saw them, they were so amazed, for example by the difference between the faces of the Aborigines and the Japanese and how the children there in those two countries drew them so differently. The outcome was they kept asking for more and more to see. Their eagerness to get to know other people out there makes me think more has to be done here.”

Socorrito’s initial response to her pupils’ curiosity about other cultures led her to include an unimaginably cute round-the-world journey of stuffed animals in her art exchange.

“We used to have a koala sent from our friends in Australia, a kiwi bird from New Zealand, a frog from Puerto Rico and a cat from France. We placed them in different airports and gave each of them a backpack and a diary for the young caretakers who were willing to take them home to record their own stories while taking good care of their animal friends. When the diaries were full, they would send them back to us.

Socorrito Diaz.

“What we’ve learned here is that these activities can nurture in the young mind love and responsibility for their fellow beings, no matter who or what they are and where they come from. And of course, this goes beyond Homo sapiens-centrism.”

Realising the impact her initiatives had on her pupils’ budding minds, in 1994 Socorrito decided to invite fellow teachers to send their students’ works to exhibit in her elementary school in Puerto Rico. From five countries in the first exhibition, the programme has been so well received it now covers countries around the world, which have since then annually taken turns hosting this international children art’s exhibition.

This year Thailand has been given the honour of hosting the 12th A World United through Art exhibition under the theme “Colours from Many Lands”. Spearheaded by the Yuvabadhana Foundation in collaboration with Silpakorn University and Chiang Mai University, the exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery features children’s art in many categories.

But even before this, Socorrito’s and the Yuvabadhana Foundation’s paths have crossed more than once. The Puerto Rican art teacher has proved she does mean what she preaches.

“In 1999, when Thailand was still suffering from the regional economic crisis, our friends in Puerto Rico held an auction for the art pieces from Thailand and sent all the proceeds back to help the foundation. Also in 2004, when Thailand was hit by the tsunami, our Puerto Rican friends took action again and raised funds for 15 affected Thai students from a charity golf tournament and by selling hand-painted bookmarks. Most importantly, these two acts of kindness went without asking,” said Churaipon C. Klaijumlang, director of the Yuvabadhana Foundation.

“Our children in Puerto Rico were very worried about their friends in the affected areas, especially when they had been closely bound by the artistic ties formed in their art exchange,” said Socorrito, who has proved that art is a very subtle form of training the young mind to be socially sensitive and, most importantly, engaged. Indeed, “art” here is no longer a private activity of individual contemplation, but a very “active” one extending to others in need.

“In our conflict-ridden world, children are very important to us. As Mahatma Gandhi once had it, if we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children,” Churaipon added to what her Puerto Rican interlocutor had started.

And so the Thai host of this year’s A World United through Art exhibition has come up with the Yuvabadhana Children’s Art Awards - which have been bestowed on those young Thai artists whose works show a remarkably active use of imagination, strong determination and pride in their local traditions - in recognition of their contribution to making the world a better place to live in.

But not to be misunderstood, these little art prodigies’ emphasis on their locality is not meant to create division but to add more colour to this year’s theme of Colours from Many Lands. With 110 schools in 34 countries from major continents around the world participating, the objective of this exhibition is to encourage encounters with faraway lands - participants to be different yet open-minded.

The exhibition is also aimed at providing a space for all children to tell their stories through the colours and lines in a painting as well as to share bits and pieces of their lives, cultures and perceptions with friends from all over the world, said Churaipon.

And this opportunity has been admirably extended to children with mental disabilities from Rajanukul Institute, young convicts in detention centres, as well as homeless children in safe houses - a generosity that allows them to feel better integrated into society, less of an outcast.

Indeed, the role of art at A World United through Art is very active and socially committed. Instead of seeing an artist as a solitary being creating his work very privately in an Ivory Tower, the project seeks through the power of art to break down the walls that have separated societies and people and join them together.

And despite many of the assumptions that have been made about children’s art - that it is not worth our attention as it has nothing to do with “beauty” as such and that it is mere scribbles and an expression of immaturity - Churaipon, interestingly, has it absolutely otherwise.

“I would like to persuade particularly those who might overlook how children’s art could be important to us to go and see this exhibition. Through our rites of passage, we tend to lose our ability to perceive the way children perceive. In fact, the so-called immaturity should rather be re-conceived more constructively as innocence - the precious quality of perception children alone possess. And it is this very innocence through the eyes of these children that can allow us to see the world as it really is; that is, the world in which there is no ‘you’ and ‘me’, but ‘us’ - the family,” said Churaipon.

‘Colours from Many Lands’ is on display at the 4th to 5th Floor, Queen’s Gallery, Phan Fa Bridge, until Monday; and at CMU Art Centre, Chiang Mai University until tomorrow.

Bangkok Post
Friday October 31, 2008