Post by title1parent on Oct 13, 2008 6:43:22 GMT -5
Shelter from the storm
Students pour 'heart and soul' into Tents of Hope for refugees
October 13, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Three weeks ago, most of Karen Popovich's Hill Middle School art students hadn't heard of Darfur.
By Friday, they'd become so familiar with the crisis occurring there that a handful of them were willing to delay the start of their weekend and stay after school to work on Darfur's behalf.
Their goal that afternoon was to finish painting a mural on an 8-by-10-foot tent to send to refugees.
"Look at them streaming in," Popovich said. "They care so much about this, and they really want to see it through."
The mural, developed and painted with the assistance of art education students from Northern Illinois University, depicts the people of Darfur following a road that leads away from the refugee camps to their newly built communities and the normal, daily lives they once knew.
"That's what I appreciate most about this project - the narrative, the story that it tells around it," Popovich said of the tent. "It's not just pictures and symbols. It talks about what we envision for their future - them getting back to their homes and rebuilding their communities."
The project is part of Tents for Hope, a nationwide community-based art project designed to raise awareness about the genocidal war in Darfur and provide assistance to the Sudanese impacted by it. Groups from around the world are painting similar tents, all of which will be sent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to be showcased Nov. 7-9 in a "Gathering of Tents" event intended to bring more attention to the crisis.
They will then be shipped to Darfur, where refugees will use them as homes and schools.
"It seems like a really good way to raise awareness about this problem," said Hill eighth-grader Alyssa Burns. "Something really needs to be done because it is really sad what these people are going through."
Like most of Popovich's students, Hill eighth-grader Maran Eriksen-Russo knew very little about Darfur before taking part in this project.
"Now I think people know a little bit more about it than before we started," she said. "Even people who weren't involved in it, because you can see it from the hallway."
Alyssa agreed.
"Everybody has seen it," she said, "and everybody is talking about it."
Mira Reisberg, assistant professor of art education at NIU, approached Popovich with idea of working together on this project, as Popovich supervises many of Reisberg's student teachers in her classroom.
Reisberg said this sort of art project is important because it does more than educate students about facts, figures and concepts.
"They're learning about how they connect," she said "That we have all of these Sudanese refugees in our community, that wars occur and how sad they are, and that we can all have a voice to change this and make a better world.
"And this will be such a thing of beauty over there in their world, and the kids there, they will feel the love," Reisberg said. This 8-foot-by-10-foot tent holds so much love in it because everyone really has put their heart and soul into it."
Students pour 'heart and soul' into Tents of Hope for refugees
October 13, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Three weeks ago, most of Karen Popovich's Hill Middle School art students hadn't heard of Darfur.
By Friday, they'd become so familiar with the crisis occurring there that a handful of them were willing to delay the start of their weekend and stay after school to work on Darfur's behalf.
Their goal that afternoon was to finish painting a mural on an 8-by-10-foot tent to send to refugees.
"Look at them streaming in," Popovich said. "They care so much about this, and they really want to see it through."
The mural, developed and painted with the assistance of art education students from Northern Illinois University, depicts the people of Darfur following a road that leads away from the refugee camps to their newly built communities and the normal, daily lives they once knew.
"That's what I appreciate most about this project - the narrative, the story that it tells around it," Popovich said of the tent. "It's not just pictures and symbols. It talks about what we envision for their future - them getting back to their homes and rebuilding their communities."
The project is part of Tents for Hope, a nationwide community-based art project designed to raise awareness about the genocidal war in Darfur and provide assistance to the Sudanese impacted by it. Groups from around the world are painting similar tents, all of which will be sent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to be showcased Nov. 7-9 in a "Gathering of Tents" event intended to bring more attention to the crisis.
They will then be shipped to Darfur, where refugees will use them as homes and schools.
"It seems like a really good way to raise awareness about this problem," said Hill eighth-grader Alyssa Burns. "Something really needs to be done because it is really sad what these people are going through."
Like most of Popovich's students, Hill eighth-grader Maran Eriksen-Russo knew very little about Darfur before taking part in this project.
"Now I think people know a little bit more about it than before we started," she said. "Even people who weren't involved in it, because you can see it from the hallway."
Alyssa agreed.
"Everybody has seen it," she said, "and everybody is talking about it."
Mira Reisberg, assistant professor of art education at NIU, approached Popovich with idea of working together on this project, as Popovich supervises many of Reisberg's student teachers in her classroom.
Reisberg said this sort of art project is important because it does more than educate students about facts, figures and concepts.
"They're learning about how they connect," she said "That we have all of these Sudanese refugees in our community, that wars occur and how sad they are, and that we can all have a voice to change this and make a better world.
"And this will be such a thing of beauty over there in their world, and the kids there, they will feel the love," Reisberg said. This 8-foot-by-10-foot tent holds so much love in it because everyone really has put their heart and soul into it."