Kickstarter

Visions of Hope is a public arts initiative designed to take place from January through May 2011 in the most desolate and isolated region of Liberia. Christina Mallie, a curator and arts educator in New York City, and Laurie Reyman, a social worker currently working in Liberia with an international NGO, have joined forces to direct this project which will mark a turning point in the physical and psychological landscape of the town of Harper where every third or fourth building is a burnt out structure that looks exactly as it did when the fourteen-year civil war finally ended in 2003.

During these five months, a local arts council will be created and fifty-six youth from eight public schools in Harper will convene. We will mobilize to transform the war torn landscape, unchanged from Liberia's civil war, into one which expresses hope and the future of Liberia through the creation of four murals in Harper. Fifty-six youth will have the opportunity to engage creatively in transforming their home town under the guidance of the local arts committee into a positive visualization of the change Liberians want to see in their lives and country. The project will encourage Liberian youths' capacity for personal achievement through self-expression and creativity, while enhancing their civic interest and engagement and fostering their role as positive contributors to society. A filmmaker will document the visual and psychological transformations as the project unfolds and produce a multi-media piece that will be shown internationally.

In May 2011 Mr. Fato A. Wheremongar of ChildArt Liberia will join the Visions of Hope public arts initiative and hold a three-day teacher training workshop on teaching the arts in schools with eight teachers from the pre-selected schools in Harper Liberia . The workshop will contribute to renewing a sense of creativity and appreciation for the arts among residents of Harper. Mr. Fato A. Wheremongar, who teaches art classes for children and youth and has a dream that one day soon every school in Liberia will be required to teach art. We hope that this workshop will plant the seed for this dream to grow.

Visions of Hope places much faith in the belief that it can be a starting point, a potential catalyst, for further actions inspired by the evidence of change expressed in the murals. The initiative will work to rehabilitate and rejuvenate the Liberian population through these visual expressions of the future of their country.

Our kickerstarter goal is to raise funds in the amount of $5,000 to cover the costs of the food for fifty-six youth to participate in the project, including their food and travel expenses, as well as to fund Mr. Wheremongar's workshop with 8 teachers. including food and travel expenses and materials for the workshop.