Sky High Mural Arts in Santo Domingo

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The glucose-inspired design for my mural project in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

In this latest blog I will describe my experience working with the community of artists, students, faculty and staff of the Instituto Tecnico Superiore Comunitario (ITSC) in San Luis, a section of Santo Domingo towards the east. We worked on a wall that was part of the Science building, a four-story surface that faced the highway (carretera). All traffic headed from Santo Domingo towards the eastern part of the island would pass directly in front of the wall. It was where the city became rural; pastures were across the street and cows grazed freely on the grounds in front...

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Tragedy and opportunity | Reflections from a YLAI fellow

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YLAI group in DC

Kheston Walkins is a young entrepreneur from Trinidad and Tobago who was selected to attend the 2016 Young Leaders of the America’s Initiative (YLAI) pilot program by the U.S. Department of State. This presidential initiative supports social and business entrepreneurs from across Latin America and the Caribbean. Here are some of his reflections on his experience attending this prestigious U.S.-based exchange. Tragedy and Opportunity: it is a strange courtship that is as clumsy as a duck’s waddle, yet the two travel abreast almost inseparably. My name is Kheston Walkins, and I am from Trinidad and Tobago. Let me tell...

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Spotlight on Soft Power: April 2016

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Aerowaves, which organizes the annual Spring Forward contemporary dance festival

 

Feathers, black paint, garden implements, platform shoes, lightsabers and some gold foil.

These are just a few of the items that will appear in the performances of 20 of Europe’s most promising young dancers and choreographers when they convene in Pilsen, Czech Republic, for the 5th annual Spring Forward festival of contemporary dance, April 22nd to April 24th, 2016.

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Working Together in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brasil

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Part of the mural painting crew in Vitória

Arriving It was hard to know what to expect. I had never been to Brasil, let alone South America. I was leaving the end of winter and arriving at the beginning of fall, as if time were working in reverse or speeding up and skipping seasons. As far as air travel goes, the flights (three of them) were all on time and remarkably stress free. In the blink of an eye, after falling asleep watching The Martian somewhere over the Amazon rainforest, I was in São Paulo, the biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere. I would be back later...

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Combatting Human Trafficking Through The Arts

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This blog was written by Joel Bergner, who recently went to India as part of Meridian’s Community Engagement through the Arts program:

Looking at a map of India’s eastern state West Bengal, one will notice that it has an unusual shape. At the top, a tiny sliver of land shoots hundreds of kilometers north, like a little tree growing out of rest of the state, which includes the capital city of Kolkata and the iconic Ganges River. This sliver pushes up into the Himalayas, and borders on Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, not far from Chinese-controlled Tibet. It is a fascinating place, with incredible mountainous views, the world-famous Darjeeling tea fields and Buddhist and Hindu temples spotting the landscape. However, it was none of these things that brought me here, to the small city of Siliguri. Upon arrival, I met with my team of local artists and Nishi Kant, director of the Indian NGO Shakti Vahini, who educated us on the situation here.

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