Beauty amidst Desperate Poverty

haiti5_500.jpg

As the world responds to the 7.0 earthquake that struck southern Haiti on January 12, 2010, the Art Blog contributes these resources about Haitian artists and their art.

The murals that once filled the walls of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince Haiti captivated visitors and locals. The cathedral-sized images depicted scenes from the life of Christ and the Holy Family accented with a Haitian landscape. Grandmere Mimi has the story at her 'Wounded Bird' blog, where she writes of the piles of rubble that now lay beneath the once vibrant visual proclamations of faith. (The editor thanks Ann Fontaine and Nick Kniseley for this tip.)

Slides and further images of the Holy Trinity Cathedral murals are found at this link here. (The editor thanks Episcopal Cafe Senior Journalist Ann Fontaine for this tip.)

From The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley TEC Appointed Missionary in Haiti, an entire collection of Haitian street art for sale, viewable on her Facebook album And Lauren's website for Haiti is here.

"Before the hurricane and the earthquake, Haitian artists were very very needy. Our little business has not been able to keep them above water,"said Boris Kravitz over the telephone with me this afternoon. "We buy art directly from the artists. My wife is Haitian, and we sell the artists' work through our shop and our website, Haitian Art Company." He and his wife, Mary, operate their small business in Key West, Florida. "Now, after the earthquake, we have no word of the circumstances of their property or the people."

The web site Art Works For Haiti states "We began our work in 1999 when we visited Haiti to buy art from many old friends and new galleries. We held our first art sale at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Newcastle, Maine in December of that year. The money we raised, together with funds appropriated by the Outreach Committee of St. Andrew’s Church, was sent to a Haitian Episcopal priest in Gros Morne, northwest Haiti, for teachers’ salaries, children’s school uniforms and school lunches in the village of Figaro. We have been raising funds for Haiti ever since through our art sales. In 2002, the Episcopal Diocese of Maine entered into a companion relationship with the Diocese of Haiti for five years and extended that relationship in 2007 for another five years. To help support the partnership and non-partnership activities that have grown out of that relationship, we have extended our art sales to many other Episcopal parishes in Maine. The proceeds have helped enable these churches to assist partner parishes in northwest Haiti and also to contribute to such non-partnership projects as St. Vincent’s School for the Handicapped, the Children’s Nutrition Fund and Maison de Naissance." (The editor thanks John Chilton and Vicki Black for this tip.)

Webster University (St Louis, Mo, USA) has several links to Haitian art and artists, including published images of Haitian art books and a list of Haitian painters compiled by Bob Corbett. (The editor thanks Donald Schell for this tip.)

Steel drum and metal art is a particular field for collectors. (The editor thanks Jean Fitzpatrick from PastoralCounseling.net for this tip.)

Bryant University (Smithfield, RI) has a Haitian Art Collection, with accompanying text online from Gladys Kinoian Lujan. A thumbnail view of the collection is here. (The editor thanks Ann Fontaine for this tip.)

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) is The Episcopal Church organization that can and is responding to the immediate and ongoing relief needs of Haiti.

Carol Barnwell, Communications Director of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas (Houston), shares with The Art Blog the ECW and ECW's work with woman Batik artists of Haiti.

The Wall Street Journal article about Georges Nader Sr and the loss of the world's largest repository of Haitian art is here.

On View:Mural of the Baptism of Jesus, wall painting from Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Courtesy of John D, Grandmere Mimi at Wounded Bird, Ann Fontaine at SeaShellSeller, and Nick Knisely at Entangled States.

Comments (3)

Lauren Stanley's Haitian street art is fantastic. Are there any ways for sales to be made to benefit relief efforts?

Thank you for your question David. I will forward it to The Rev Lauren Stanley. I imagine any sales would help relief efforts if the sale provides income to Haitian artists.

The Rev Lauren Stanley responds, "Mel, the artists and vendors are all my good friends. And I've no idea if they are alive or dead, homeless or at home, in PAP or elsewhere.
This is hard ... please to tell folks that the art cannot be purchased right now, but when I go back, my prayer is that I will find my people, and perhaps some stores of art.

"I need people to pray for my people -- students; street vendors; artists; phone card vendors who have to scramble to find enough phone cards for my ever-increasing demand; little children whom I send to school; the old woman from whom I buy peanut butter sandwiches from in the morning; the mama on the street with the three children, including an infant, whom I support; the sugar-cane vendor who smiles even when I don't buy sugar cane; the money changers who laugh out loud because they now know I don't have American money and thus can't change anything, but who think it's funny to ask me daily; the bag boy at the grocery store who gets little tips from me even when I don't make him carry a bag outside for me; the little street children who love to skip along with me and to whom I give fruit and lunches; the gap-toothed sisters at my parish who helped me translate We Are Marching in the Light of God into Creole and who delight in singing it with me; the sexton at my church; the music school children (St. James the Just is the extension of the Holy Trinity Music School); the young girl who sells me my oranges and taught me the difference between juicing and eating oranges, and who convinced the entire street market that I am a Haitian, and thus cannot be charged higher prices; ... my list is endless and my heart is breaking and I can barely stand at times from the grief and the not-knowing.
PLEASE do not let the people of America forget this, or get tired of this, or ask why Haitians can't help themselves!
Please pray!"

Add your comments
Reminder: At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names. For more details see our Feedback Policy.

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Advertising Space