600 Children Participate in Hands of Action Art Project

Every child is an artist - Pablo Picasso

The Hands of Action Uganda Art Project moved into high gear last week, signing up more than 600 children from four participating schools and orphanages in the Bududa district of eastern Uganda.

They include Hands of Action Uganda, Lunganga Primary School, Bukari Primary School and African Children in Need.

The young artists have until October 28th to compose their masterpieces representing scenes from everyday life in rural Uganda.

Our local director for the project, Mukhobeh Moses Khaukha, along with a special panel of judges, then face the awesome task of selecting the best 40 or 50 pieces for inclusion in an online art gallery and auction site.

Hands of Action volunteers will then carefully package the paintings for shipment to Ridealist in Hong Kong where they will be scanned and put online, and hopefully, displayed in a physical location.

Moses described the sense of excitement that is gripping the youngsters.

"The children are happy that their work will be seen overseas, and that there is an opportunity to create friendships with children from other countries.

"Most of the children participating in the Hands of Action Art Project are needy orphans

who cannot afford scholastic materials, clothes and so on.

"One 13-year old boy, James, told me that he is looking forward to having books and new Christmas clothes because of the project."

The project was originally inspired by the work of a young Kenyan artist, Martin Thuku.

This talented young man grew up in the Kandara Children's home in Nairobi after the tragic loss of his parents.

He now uses his art not only to help fund his own education, but also to support the programmes of a local non-profit organisation, VisionAfrica.

His art is an inspiration and reaffirmation that whatever hardships we have endured, we are still the artists of our own destiny.

"The children, teachers and parents are very excited by this project, which enables the artists to express their feelings on paper," Moses said.

"This being the first project of its kind, thousands of children wanted to participate when they heard about it.

"The project has required thorough preparation to help the children and teachers understand its concepts. We are very grateful to the teachers and volunteers for working so tirelessly to make sure this project is well done."

The project was made possible by an initial donation from Mr. Simon P'ng of Malaysia to cover the costs of the materials.

The Hands of Action Uganda Art Project now needs further funding or sponsorship in kind to cover the expense of high quality scanning, picture frames, and promotion of a physical exhibition of the paintings in Hong Kong.

It is our ultimate ambition to send this exhibition "on the road" where people from around the world may join together to marvel at, and discuss the treasures that are being created.

All funds raised from the online and physical exhibitions, auction of the prints etc, will used to promote the programmes of the participating schools and orphanages in Uganda.

If you would like to join us, please contact Ridealist through the links on this page or on Facebook. You can also keep up to date with developments by following us on twitter @chrisgelken

Thank you.

Claire George, Ridealist Project Manager, Hands of Action Art Project

@slaurencecowley

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Hands of Action Art Project Information Leaflet

The following leaflet has been created by Claire George, project manager for the

Hands of Action Art Project, and will be distributed to teachers and care givers

of the participating children.

So far, about 400 children are expected to submit drawings and paintings.

Claire is working on a more detailed update that will be published here

and on the Hands of Action blog.

We are looking for children to draw or paint pictures for a show in Hong Kong.

The pictures will also be displayed in an online art gallery and sold to people

in an auction on the Internet.

How much money is raised will depend on the charm of the children's work.

The money will go to Hands of Action Uganda.

We will endeavour to provide the successful child artists

with clothes or school materials and other necessities.

Children will be given the materials they need to draw or paint the pictures.

They will have one week.

The pictures will be collected and sent to Hong Kong by Hands of Action volunteers

under supervision of Mukobeh Moses Khaukha.

A message to the child artists.

Remember that the people looking at your art will be foreigners who have probably never been

to Uganda. We want to show them what Ugandan life is like.

Please consider drawing or painting one of the following subjects:

Christmas in Uganda, children playing, children at school, hobbies, family life,

live in villages, markets and shops, farms, Ugandan animals,

the Ugandan landscape, women's work, men's work, children's work, festivals,

traditional clothes and art.

Hands of Action Uganda's mission is to help the rural communities

of the area improve their lives and prospects by mobilizing them to directly

participate in initiatives and activities aimed at significantly improving their

circumstances, both now and in the future.

This art project has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. Simon P'ng of Malaysia.

The Hands of Action Art Project is an initiative of Ridealist -

a Hong Kong-based non-profit media organisation.

www.handsofaction.org

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Claire George takes on Project Manager role with Ridealist

The Hands of Action Art Exhibition and Fundraising Auction now has a project manager!

With a generous donation from Mr. Simon P'ng of Malaysia, we are now able to begin purchasing the basic necessities to the get art project off the ground.

In the interests of sustainability, the environment and basic economics (think of the local shopkeepers), the materials will be purchased locally in Uganda, rather than fly them half way around the world.

In addition, to improve the pool of "talent", Moses at Hands of Action has suggested we expand the project to include other local orphanages and schools. We can also introduce various categories of painting etc. to reflect the lives and aspirations of the children.

I have been canvassing folks far and wide about the best way to get the paintings hung in a proper gallery, or at least a venue where they'll be appreciated by a reasonable number of people.

And of course, there will be the online gallery and auction.

It is now up to Moses and Claire to work with us at Ridealist and all of our friends to make this project the success it deserves to be for the benefit of the children and their communities.

We look forward to working with you all!

Chris & Shirley

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We need a volunteer project manager

We are in need of a volunteer project manager.

Some of you may know we have initiated an art project with an orphanage in Uganda. It was inspired by our video Martin's Art.

You can read more about the idea at The Hands of Action Art Exhibition and Fundraiser

We have received the initial funding to purchase the materials - paper, crayons, pencils etc etc.. in Uganda.

So we are good to go...

But I am still tied up with Peace International Foundation - there's a lot of editing and we are planning a couple of more videos. Shirley gets back next week, but apart from editing her two documentaries from China, she'll also be shooting a video for the Unison Hikathon on Oct 23rd...I will probably be shooting too, and certainly doing the editing.

So you can imagine, we are pretty topped out.

If anyone wants to take on the job... description below... please let me know asap!
Cheers,Chris

Project manager. It is mostly administrative stuff really.

Helping design how the project will run... Moses wants to expand to include other schools and orphanages in the region, he wants to have "themes" - obviously positive ones - for the different categories of picture.. size of picture, how long should we give them, chasing them up, how many pictures should we accept for the online gallery/auction.. making initial contacts with galleries in HK and elsewhere for the exhibition/fundraiser. Frames (Ikea?)

Generally, from the administrative level, making this thing work in the way we all want it to.

Considering and initially contacting other potential sponsors for follow up costs - such as first class high resolution scanning, frames, shipments etc.

This could go as big or remain as small - closed circle - as we want it.

You'd coordinate with other people who have contacts with Moses and who've worked with him on various projects. Ridealist as the producer, would just "officially" sign off on the steps as they go along.. so we can monitor progress and make sure we don't breach any of the conditions of our society status here in Hong Kong..

It would almost entirely be email and possibly skype based.. so your location is not a major factor, you can do this from just about anywhere. Except perhaps Lebanon, which I understand has the slowest and most expensive internet connections in the world!

The "grunt" work, making the videos etc.. we'll do here in Hong Kong.

We need to get this moving, so if you are up for it, contact us as soon as possible!

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