[afro-nets] "Peace Tiles" for World AIDS Day 2005 Exhibits

[Janet Feldman <kaippg@earthlink.net>]

"Peace Tiles" for World AIDS Day 2005 Exhibits: Please join us
for Workshops NOW!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

Hello and please read below about an exciting project called
"Peace Tiles", which will be taking place during the next few
months, culminating in a World AIDS Day 2005 exhibition of com-
pleted murals at two or more international sites, and local and
national venues in countries where workshops have taken place.

A mural project for Uganda, to help youth affected by war, has
already been completed, and a current youth empowerment project
originating in Uganda -- involving young people in similar cir-
cumstances -- will be sending a completed mural to the youth of
Darfur, Sudan, to show them they are not forgotten.
For more on this see: http://www.lifeinafrica.com

It is envisioned that this may be the first year of a multi-year
project which will grow both at the grassroots and internation-
ally. For more about it, please see http://www.peacetiles.net ,
and contact the email addresses below! We hope you will join us,
as youth raise their visual voices about HIV/AIDS and other is-
sues that affect their lives.

Yours in creativity and hope,

Janet Feldman
KAIPPG/ActALIVE
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net
http://www.kaippg.org


OVERVIEW

On World AIDS Day 2005, the "visual voice" of hundreds of chil-
dren and youth affected by, or at risk of, HIV/AIDS will be ex-
hibited in communities around the world. The exhibitions, the
culmination of the first international Peace Tiles project, will
consist of murals composed of individually produced collages
("peace tiles") that give expression to messages created by
children and youth about HIV/AIDS and development-related sub-
jects (MDGs).

The goal of the World AIDS Day Peace Tiles project is to raise
awareness about the vulnerability of children and youth, and to
provide them with a dynamic means for self-advocacy and self-
expression. The Peace Tiles project will coordinate the instal-
lation of murals in three international "solidarity sites": the
Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (confirmed);
at a children's paediatric AIDS center in South Africa, and in
India. Other murals will be installed at locations identified by
participating communities. The Peace Tiles project will also co-
ordinate the exchange of tiles between participating communi-
ties.

THE PROCESS

Peace Tiles are produced in structured 1 or 2-day workshops de-
signed to engage participants emotionally, intellectually, and
creatively in a process of "arts advocacy." Children are encour-
aged to bring artifacts from their lives that speak to a per-
sonal experience with HIV/AIDS or their knowledge of the pan-
demic or on related subjects close to their hearts and homes.
These artifacts (photos, letters, scraps of cloth, newspaper
clippings, etc) are integrated into their personal collages that
may have "scrap book" qualities, narrative features, and educa-
tional value. When put together, the tiles create moving and up-
lifting murals that capture the vibrancy and hope of our chil-
dren and youth around the world.

Presently, more than 15 communities around the world have ex-
pressed an interest in sponsoring Peace Tiles workshops. Work-
shops are currently scheduled in India, Uganda, Senegal, and the
United States between now and September 31, 2005, and tenta-
tively in Kenya, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Cameroon, Thai-
land, Germany, and Canada. Exhibitions of the finished murals
will open on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2005.

The Peace Tiles Project has been created and is being coordi-
nated by Lars Hasselblad Torres (http://www.devarts.org), in
collaboration with the international arts coalition, ActALIVE
(http://www.actalive.org), the International Child Art Founda-
tion (http://www.icaf.org), and Visual Voices
(http://www.visualvoices.org).

More Information:

Peace Tiles World AIDS Day 2005: Art Actions and Unity Event:
http://www.tagstudio.net/devarts/index.php?q=wad2005 and also
http://www.peacetiles.net

Email: Lars Hasselblad Torres (mailto:lars@tagstudio.net),
Janet Feldman (mailto;kaippg@earthlink.net)

How To Make A Peace Tile:

Interested in making Peace Tiles in your community? Here's how
in three easy steps! Please note that the purpose of this guide
is to provide a starting point. With the exception of working on
wood, please adopt the process to fit your circumstances:
stretch the boundaries and be as creative as you like! When you
have completed one or more Peace Tiles, please consider donating
one or more to the mural effort, or make a gift of your own mu-
ral to a paediatric AIDS service organization.

PREPARE YOUR WORK SURFACE
Cut your wood panel to 8-inches by 8-inches in size (20-cm by
20-cm). Wipe down the surface of the wood with a weak mixture of
soap and water to remove excess dust, etc. Allow your tile to
dry in the sun or air about 10 minutes.


CREATE A BACKGROUND
Using any combination of paint*, colored markers, pastels or
even paper (for example a newspaper photograph) or any other
available media, create a background for your collage. Let stand
to dry up to one hour if you have glued paper in your back-
ground.


ADD THE FOREGROUND
Using liquid glue and a paint brush, carefully wet and mount
foreground objects like a photograph, a handwritten note or
poem, a piece of colored string or cloth, a postage stamp from
your country, and other artifacts on the surface of your tile.
Let stand to dry up to one hour.

The Peace Tiles Project is a collaborative global arts project
that aims to raise awareness of issues impacting children and
youth through a unique combination of collage and mural work.
Learn more: http://www.peacetiles.net