Last week, the “first real inauguration of the [Konbit Shelter] community center with workshops and events brought by Ayiti Resurrect and Ayiti Cherie Healing” took place in Bigones, Haiti. Spearheaded by Brooklyn-based artist Swoon, the Konbit Shelter Project was created with the idea that a group of artists, engineers, architects, and builders could pool their individual knowledge, resources, and time to make a lasting difference in post-earthquake Haiti. [Konbit Shelter blog]
Haiti
Posted inArt
Swoon’s Konbit Shelter: Every Disaster Holds the Promise of Creation
Two Konbit Shelter project team members, Thaddeus Pawlowski and Sarah Walko, reflect on the nature of disasters and what they can teach us about how we become who we are. As they explain, “They reveal deep patterns in our nature. Artists are vital to the rebuilding process because they can help us recognize these patterns and the lessons embedded within them. By fostering a common vision and purpose, they can glue a city back together even more than housing and infrastructure, as they provide a psychic infrastructure.”
Posted inNews
An Extensive Roundup of Haitian Art in Jeopardy, London ICA’s Budget Crisis
… Florida’s Dail Museum needs money to complete its new building … a woman fell into a Rose Period Picasso last Friday at the Met and ignited some of the funniest blog comments I’ve ever read on a New York Times blog (don’t worry, both the woman & the Picasso will be fine) … Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario receives its biggest contemporary art donation ever … and a list of all the biennials you can look forward to in 2010.
Posted inArt
Joy Garnett’s Gesture for Haiti
Today, I was browsing Facebook and I discovered a post by Joy Garnett, who was offering one of her paintings to the first collector to pledge $10,000 to a fund for Haiti. She’s an artist known for painting images of disasters and I wanted to talk to her about her latest bout of altruism.