School
The Art School and Open Studio will serve children, youth and adults, free of charge, with art classes focusing on a variety of media. Community art projects will be created collaboratively by the inhabitants of Perquín. Visual artists, poets, photographers and performing artists will be invited to create art residencies for periods of one to three weeks.
What is an Art School/ Open Studio? Why create one in Perquin?
The Art School and Open Studio will respond to the concrete demands of children, youth and adults from Perquin who strongly want to continue having art as a pivotal activity in their lives. They want the insertion of art to be a constant presence in their community.
In a meeting held early in March, the Mayor stated: ?? How can we insure the insertion of art as a constant activity in our community ? ?? This meeting was attended by the Mayor of Perquin, Ms. Miriam Chicas, representatives of FECANM (Federación de Cooperativas Agropecuarias del Norte de Morazán/ Federation of Agriculture Cooperatives of the North of Morazán), Ayuda en Acción (Help in Action), La Casa de la Cultura (The Cultural Center), la Policía Nacional Civil (The National Civil Police), la Unidad de Salud (the Health Unite), la Escuela Union Panamericana (the Pan American School), and CEBES (Comunidades Eclesiasticas de Base de El Salvador (Ecclesiastic Base Communities from El Salvador).
Our vision- that of the NGO’s, the Mayor’s Office and Claudia Bernardi (as the artist designer of this proposed project)- are:
The active insertion of the practice of art in the community of Perquin
The creation of a School of Art/ Open Studio, designed to serve children, youth and adults
The creation of workshops and pilot projects oriented towards education and preparation of the young artists of Perquin in developing working skills through art. This means creating professional and working possibilities and networks outside Morazán, which will, eventually, provide them with economic venues for independent livelihood.
Bernardi’s participation in this project will be as a facilitator, organizer, educator, artist in residence, and as an active liaison between the community of Perquin, Salvadoran and international artists. These contacts with artists in El Salvador and the rest of Latin America responds to the open structure suggested as the principal methodology on which to build a School of Art / Open Studios in the North of Morazán.
The methodology of education and learning will be based on specific projects and experimental of aesthetic approaches. The School of Art/ Open Studio of Perquin will be a multidisciplinary space, which will bring together Salvadoran, Latin American and International artists. Working at all times collaboratively with the community of Perquin. The artists will share in the form of open workshops and with a commitment of two to three weeks of length where they will develop, teach and practice their area of specialization with the participants of the workshops, children, youth and adults of Perquin.
What a typical year might be like at the School of Art/ Open Studio of Perquin? How would the activities be organized?
In the period of one year there will be four different workshops taught by invited artists, internationally known, representing a variety of disciplines.
Divided in trimesters: January/ March; April/ June; July/ September; and October/ December. The workshops will be organized in such a way that the guest artists will be in Perquin for two to three weeks. Previous to the arrival of the artists Valeria Galliso and Claudia Bernardi will prepare and instruct the participants. We will organize classes in which the participants will learn and experiment with aesthetic and visual concerns related to those of the upcoming artist-in-residence. When the artists arrive, they will be responsible for the conduction and development of a proposed project. They will also monitor and evaluate the production of the participants responding to the presentation of their workshop.
The workshops will be designed to satisfy the interest of participants of all different ages. They will be free and materials will be provided for the making of artwork. Because of the enormously depressed post war economy in Morazán , it is impossible at this time to imagine that the participants would be able to provide their own tools and materials. The Mayor’s office, the local NGO’s and the Institutions have therefore agreed to absorb some of the expenses related to acquisition of art materials and/ or equipment.