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Kuopio, Finland 2010 | Mänttä, Finland 2010 | Iceland 2008 | Ethiopia 2007 | Rauma, Finland 2006  

 

Fostering Art as Communication, Connection and Affirmation

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2007

Just like the name of the city, 'Addis Ababa' which means 'New Flower', the youth showed their blooming creativity. Isn't the picture above an amazing manifestation of a creative new flower?

Project Team
Cultural producer, Andreas (Denmark/Sweden), artist/architect Doung (Mauritius/South Africa) and myself (Korea/USA/Finland) collaborated in this project. What a multicultural team! We came from diverse backgrounds and experiences and the collaboration was rich and warm.

Project Manager Andreas

Artist/ Architect Doung

Artist/ Art Therapist Eungyung

Shower at the Rest Center
We worked at the 'Rest Center' of 'Hope for Children-Ethiopia', where the street youth come for shower and food. This is a transitioning place where the organization works to get them out of the street by providing their basic needs, bible studies and counseling. A few of them were attending school and are on the way to changes but most of them continue to live on the streets for years.

Difficult living condition on the street
A lot of the people we worked with (mostly adolescents with some younger children and a couple of adults) had never drawn in their whole lives, but they amazed us with the use of colors and expressions. It was very inspiring for us how quickly they opened up themselves and we were able to develop close friendships. We did excecises where they could relate to various colors with their emotions and they were able to connect the two pretty quickly.

Portraits of each other full of vibrant colors and expressions
We engaged the street youth in creative expressions so that they could build identity, reflect on their lives and make their hopes and visions more concrete by having a physical drawing of it and by telling the group about it. Not only the art making but also the verbal process seemed to play a very important role for them to bring further insights.
 

School children's boxes representing inner and outer selves

Teachers experiencing joy of art making!
We also gave short workshops at the school the organization runs for the people who cannot afford to go to governmental schools. The focus of the education lies much on learning not much on the creativity. We worked both with children and teachers to model an approach that encourages free expression and uniqueness of individuals.
 

The youth expressed their wishes to continue this work, the leaders of the organization recognized the importance of use of art as a way to give them space to express themselves and to assist their ongoing work. All of us are currently working on how to keep the creative approach sustainable for the organization.

For me personally this trip raised many questions as to how I can best offer my service to those in need. Art therapy can be utilized for so many in the world. Please pray for the continual growth for the youth we worked with, and for the nation of Ethiopia, as well as for many doors will be open for me and others in the related fields to continue the good work.

 
• Special thanks to friends, family and International Evangelical Church in Finland for financial contributions and International Arts Movement for administrative support for this project.