In which a painter travels to Gulu, Uganda,
to work with children who have been
abducted by terrorists, to serve as soldiers and sex slaves,
and the healing begins.
Art is a wound turned into light.
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Don't miss the slide show of the paintings, linked below.
You've probably never heard of Ross Bleckner. He's a painter who became famous in the 1980s; he's considered an "important artist," and has works in museums all over the world. But he’s not exactly a household name, and here's why I hope this will change.
Earlier this year, Bleckner went on an official mission to the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Gulu has been terrorized for many years by the rebel force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. Formed in 1987, the LRA continues to rove around Northern Uganda and the Southern Sudan, abducting and conscripting thousands of children, who are forced to become killers and sex slaves.
Bleckner worked with a group of 25 children ages eleven to nineteen. The former abductees and ex-soldiers – many of them orphans – had all experienced horrific trauma, and some had been forced to kill or maim other children or adults before they escaped from, or were released by, the rebel movement.
Using donated paint, brushes and paper, Bleckner spent several days teaching them rudimentary painting and drawing skills.
Then the children began to open up to him, and to create work that powerfully expressed their experiences.
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Bleckner is the first visual artist named to be a Goodwill Ambassador since the position was created by the United Nations in 1954.*
[W]hen United Nations officials first approached him, they asked whether he thought art could perform a useful role in drawing attention to the plague of human trafficking.
And I said to them that if art can’t perform a role like that,
then it has no role at all.
The children made 200 paintings that will be sold at a benefit at the UN headquarters tonight, Tuesday, May 12, when Bleckner will be officially installed. He plans to return to the area early next year to enlarge the painting project and that — in his role as ambassador — he hoped to enlist many more artists to become involved in efforts to fight child enslavement and trafficking.
Says Bleckner:
What this mission accomplished is what is called microcreativity.
It is a personal interaction which gives someone the tools to create something that they can be proud of, and which can help them on the arduous path to restoring their dignity and sense of self-worth.
In an interview with big think, Bleckner talks about how he intends to fulfill his new post (site offers both video and transcripts).
[W]hat they were trying to do was essentially go to Northern Uganda and re-socialize, and have the story be told through art-making to see if that was a viable way of telling the story ...
They asked me as the first [visual] artist to go...and start a program at a refugee camp, a very large, internally displaced person camp, an IDP it’s called, where people from Uganda actually live in this refugee camp that they could keep them under guard essentially so that the kids don’t get kidnapped.
I basically painted with the kids. And there’s going to be an exhibition at the United Nations...of all the work. And it’s going to be for sale and the money will go to help them reconstruct their lives and essentially send them back to school. So that’s a program that they want to get going around Africa
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that human trafficking generates $32 billion a year in profits, third only to drug and arms trafficking.
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Please take a moment to view the Slide show of works by the children in the project, which is attached to "For Child Soldiers, a Chance to Wield Brushes, Not Arms," NYT, April 28, 2009, the primary source for this diary.
*Audrey Hepburn , Harry Belafonte , Roger Moore, Angelina Jolie, Susan Sarandon, Danny Kaye, and Mia Farrow are but a few examples of previous ambassadors.
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Visual Poll!
These are paintings by Ross Bleckner from various times in his career. Vote for the one you like best.