Posted at 10:04 pm March 01, 2012
Tags: Arts Training and Workshops, Visual arts
By Nikka Garriga
PASAY CITY, METRO MANILA? For more than a decade now, Alma Quinto has been going from one marginalized community after the other bringing with her not boxes of clothes or food but a different kind of ?relief goods? ? her art.
The House of Comfort Workshop was conceptualized as a form of intervention that aims to gather the ?visual dream narratives? of survivors of abuse and natural disasters.
It was inspired by Alma?s years of experience working with young girls who have survived abuse and other marginalized women and children in various communities.
?I thought about creating a project that would strengthen community participation and collaborative art making. Art, for me, is a way to bring together advocates and raise the need to help traumatized children heal,? she says.
Just recently, Alma conducted workshops in? communities in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan that were devastated by Typhoon Sendong last year.
Participants, mostly women and teenage girls, were asked visualize their dreams for themselves and the community by drawing them on paper and sewing them on discarded materials or textiles.
These artworks were then put on display as they gathered together to share their stories and how they felt during and after the experience.
Drawing and sewing, Alma says, allows them to focus on the positive and becomes a symbol of their capability to transform their ideas into reality.
?We use art to provide psychosocial support without being too aggressive or complicated. You must learn to humble yourself to them so that they would open themselves to you,? she explains.
The goal of every session is to spark the a person?s creativity and use this to discover their strengths and what they can do in whatever situation they find themselves in.
?It is important to make them realize that they have the power to heal themselves in due time using the right approach,? Alma says.
She facilitated a similar activity dubbed ?Art from Discards? for the participants of the recent 2nd Asian Children Conference.
Related Stories:
Pinoy visual artists come together to promote volunteerism
NGO encourages volunteerism among Filipino professionals
Youth group promotes doll-making for a cause
Bohol inmate uses talents as an artist for a good cause
green river killer bohemian grove showtime the prisoner the prisoner gene simmons my bloody valentine
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.