{"id":870,"date":"2011-11-19T17:45:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/?p=870"},"modified":"2011-11-19T17:47:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T21:47:05","slug":"street-markets-of-hope-art-in-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/2011\/11\/street-markets-of-hope-art-in-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Markets of Hope- Art in Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Livingston ’12, head of our Merchandise Committee reflects on the connections between art, hope and spirit of creation in Haiti, and where VHP fits in the picture. <\/em><\/p>\n

As members of VHP, we become accustomed to working with and getting to know to a variety of Haitian paintings and handicrafts. This artwork gives us a tangible connection to Haiti and reminds us that somewhere beneath, among, or even above the injustices of poverty, natural disasters, and disease there can be an indefatigable willingness to continue, imagine, and create. It is this creation that we are responding to when we \u201cgo wow\u201d over a handicraft or secretly covet a painting.<\/p>\n

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During a sale our artwork can be almost overwhelming. You hardly know where to look, and it can be difficult to focus when you are eyeing a paper mache frog while a Pierre Maxo tiger\u00a0is eyeing your back. However, for all of its engaging power, VHP\u2019s artwork is simply a small point in the Haitian art universe.<\/p>\n

According to the Haitian embassy\u2019s \u201cBrief History of Haitian Art,\u201d art \u201cblossomed\u201d soon after the 1804 revolution. This art emphasized religion and portraits. Haitian art gained international recognition in the 1930s and 1940s with the creation of the Centre D\u2019Art in Port-Au-Prince. The Centre D\u2019Art was a gathering place for artists, who often also held other roles as voodoo priests and farmers. These artists painted surreal scenes and made patchworks of voodoo flags. The most internationally well-known artist of this time was Hector Hypolite, a former shoemaker and voodoo priest whose paintings featured religious imagery and country scenes. Hypolite\u2019s works are still sought after and considered highly valuable. While the responsibility of the Centre D\u2019Art for the works produced by its artists is disputed, the Centre was among of the first of a series of art schools and institutions (Foyer des Arts Plastiques, Galerie Brochette, and Calfou) that brought Haitian art outside the nation\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

The above paragraph is a short attempt to recognize Haitian art as it exists outside of VHP. Like most histories, the history of Haitian art cannot be contained in a paragraph (or even a blog post). Tidbits of information and stories are sprinkled across the Internet and other sources for the persistent and curious investigator. An additional component of Haitian art that ought to be recognized are the informal, street art markets. VHP members have visited these art markets during trips to Haiti and enjoyed the diversity of art found there.<\/p>\n

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In addition to increasing my admiration of Haitian art, this brief reflection has made me realize (again) the brilliant idea behind VHP. Somehow, this organization has not only funded education, reforestation, water, and health initiatives in Chermaitre, Haiti, but the source of that funding has come from within Haiti in the form of artwork. It is a neat definition of sustainable development, and one that starts to counter the claim that there is little hope in Haiti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laura Livingston ’12, head of our Merchandise Committee reflects on the connections between art, hope and spirit of creation in Haiti, and where VHP fits in the picture. As members of VHP, we become accustomed to working with and getting to know to a variety of Haitian paintings and handicrafts. This artwork gives us a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,190,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiti-news","category-other","category-voices-from-vhp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/haitiproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}