Southern California & Nevada

Well plans are getting made for all of my travels to India and my trip around the world. I leave for India on June 4 and return on July 16th. While I am there I will participate in Art Camp in Mussoorie which is an opportunity for artists from various disciplines such as art, music, writing etc to get together and create their own art, take walks, and so forth. Afterwards we return to Varanasi to teach art to children and their teachers. The arts are not taught in India very often so there are few teachers. Many children and adults have never or rarely picked up a paint brush in their lives. I am involved in a non profit organization called Nirman which has two schools and a focus on the arts. One of our schools is in Varanasi, the other is in a village called Betawar. The picture you see is of a group of some of the people at Art Camp at Betawar. Everyone gets to learn -from the servant on the left to the children, to the teacher (the young woman with the black shawl), to the teacher's grandmother in the back.

This summer we are going to focus heavily on painting. We will have separate classes for teachers and students so that the teachers will learn enough so that they can teach the students. I plan to talk about the need for the arts the school as well. I would like to do a Powerpoint presentation on art history but I don't have a projector. Perhaps I can make some posters. Since our school has no electricity from 9-2 every day I would need a projector that could run on batteries or do the art history in the afternoon. I would also like to teach the color wheel, monochromatic painting and about contrasts, shadows and light. I think we will have the classes for about a week. We will also do some arts and crafts as well though I haven't planned those yet and would love some good ideas. In the past we have done paper making, paper mache and origami.

The other thing I will be working on in Varanasi is setting up an artist's network at the schools. Varanasi is teeming with artists. They can't get fair prices for their work though. Many cannot afford art education either. But they meet to talk and paint on the water's edge next to forts and palaces and the religious pilgrims, and the tourists. We want to create a network so that our school can meet the local artists and learn from them. We also want to have a place for them to hold exhibits at our schools. We have a small store at our school, perhaps we can find a way to help them sell their art. So my job is to start contacting artists and set up a meeting for them at Nirman.

Next I will be heading off to two small villages north of Allahabad. There are two schools which have been set up by the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) for minority students called Dalits, or otherwise known as the unscheduled castes. I am interested in what the DFN is about so I have contacted them to teach some art classes there. These schools are in tiny villages, one of which I cannot find on Google Maps. So I will need to take the train to Allahabad and then possibly a bus to get closer or possibly a taxi. I think that the taxi will be expensive but will be about $15 a day for two days. With two large suitcases, and no idea of exactly where I am going it might make more sense to take the taxi.

I get home in mid July and will have three weeks to get ready for my trip painting around the world for a year. But I plan to paint my way around the world and teach free painting classes as I go. I am also hoping to exchange paintings for hotel stays in the pricier countries. I will write more on that later.

I have been busy fundraising for the last few weeks for Nirman. I have raised or donated enough money to almost sponsor one child for one year at NIRMAN. Yesterday I had a rummage sale and raised $70 for that fund. Two others donated items for the sale. I am going to have another sale in two weeks as well. Another friend donated $100 for art supplies. Today I went on Dick Blick to look for supplies and the $100 isn't going to be enough for the four schools I don't think. I would like to be able to leave paints and brushes behind at all of the schools so that they will be able to continue painting when I am gone. The two Nirman schools don't need paints as we have had enough donated in the last few years, but the brushes do need to be replaced.

If you would like to donate to this cause you can do so in a number of ways.

1. Send me your extra painting supplies, brushes, paints and so forth to Sandra Hansen, 227 W. 19th St Holland, MI 49423
2. Send me any amount of money towards art supplies and my travel expenses to the DFN schools. I want to buy tempera paints in either the cakes or powdered form. The cakes are smaller and easier to travel with, but the powdered is less expensive. You can send me a check, or through Paypal I can do Paypal or a credit card.
a. You can send a check to Sandra Hansen, 227 W. 19th St Holland, MI 49423
b. For credit card or Paypal send me an email letting me know the amount and your email address and I send you an invoice that allows you to send me money that way.
3. I have a wish list on Dick Blick. You can go to http://www.dickblick.com/wishlist/mywishlist.asp and search for my wish list (sandra hansen) and buy any supplies that I have listed there. The canvas pads are for my own use so ignore them, all others are for the children's use.
4. If you have a power point projector I would like to have or borrow one for showing pictures of paints throughout history and throughout the world. If it can run on batteries or be fixed to run on batteries that would be especially useful.

I hope you can help. I will be sending pictures back when I can.

Blog: #1 of 10 by Art Nomad Sandra Hansen

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