Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Community Based Tourism | Date: Aug 04 2008 | By: Julie

Movin’ It on Holiday to Madagascar.

I’d like to share with you short videos of the people I work with here in Rwanda and people I meet along the way who are contributing to conservation.

Please bare with me - videos, editing, YouTube are all new to me!

We’ll start with words from an ecotour guide in Madagascar, Vy RAHARINOSY, as he shares a little about what he does, what is his favorite animal, and the art he likes the most in Madagascar and conclude the video with a taste of Malagasy culture. If you’ve been following Art for Gorillas, perhaps you are familiar with our approach to conservation - my team and I believe in promoting symbiotic relationships between people, animals, and nature. What so impressed me and my fellow travel companions about Vy during our tour of Madagascar is how he brought these aspects together for us and we left the island feeling we knew a lot more - not just about lemurs, but about the people, their culture, their needs, the environmental and economic challenges they face. Vy holds so much knowledge about the many national parks and reserves - each with its own unique ecosystems. And get this, he studied philosophy in India and sings Elvis and Nat King Cole beautifully and loves dogs.

Vy Raharinosy, my Malagasy Hero

Vy hires superb local forest guides who offer excellent details about the animals, reptiles, birds and trees. Above is ‘le petit frere’, the little brother, who along with his big brother, sister, and father is a guide in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park - a rainforest situated in the east of the island.

I stood entranced when this Indri indri began its calls to the other lemurs - I’ve never heard anything like it. Still in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.

Mama Indri indri with her baby’s head poking out from the comfort and safety of her belly!

Above, a Diademed Sifaka in the same montane forest - about 4 hours by car from the capital, Antananarivo. Madagascar’s rainforests were once in a band extending from the north to the south. Now only fragments remain due to deforestation caused by the timber industry, slash-and-burn agriculture practices, and the production of charcoal for cooking.

Here, Vy’s favorite lemur, the bamboo lemur. Hiking through forests, I was comparing the plight of the mountain gorilla whose habitat is a chain of volcanoes extending through DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda to that of the lemur found only in Madagascar - both primate species are endangered. ORTPN, Rwanda’s park and tourism service and a partner of Art of Conservation is protecting the gorillas primarily through tourism, empowering park staff, and trying to set in motion sustainable income generation and good health for the communities surrounding the park.

Do those of you who have traveled to Rwanda think that ORTPN is perhaps a model for Madagascar? Can increased tourism help the Malagasy?

I booked my ecotour with Ged at Terra Incognita Ecotours. Ged brings clients to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas and this is how I got to know him. Click here to visit Ged’s wonderful ecotour offerings.

More on Madagascar coming up.
Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN)

2 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 30 2008 | By: Julie

One group coming in - one group going out. This is how it was with groups of Kigali school children on their field trips to Kandt House Natural History Museum.
Art from our last 3-month course from local communities surrounding Parc National des Volcans (PNV) is on display along with the museum’s permanent exhibits.

Green Hills Academy gave their visiting children a long list of questions:
1. Name of the museum…
2. Location of the museum…
3. Whose home is now the national history museum?
4. Mention any two parts of Rwanda that were explored by Richard Kandt.
5. How did he die?
6. What is a rock?
7. Name the examples of rocks on display…
8. Name five national parks found in Rwanda…
9. Name five main volcanos…
10. When did Nyamulagira volcano erupt?
11. Where do the volcanic bombs come from?
12. State the influence of volcanic mountains on man’s activities…
13. What is unusual about how river Mukungwa flows?
14. What type of vegetation is on display?
15. Name three of each of the following from Rwanda
a) Reptiles
b) Birds
c) Mammals
16. What skills are required to protect the environment?
17. What attitude is being developed in our society toward the environment?
18. What is your responsibility in trying to keep/conserve the environment?

After viewing Art of Conservation’s exhibit as well as the museum’s permanent collection, students ponder questions and draw gorillas on the patio of the Kandt House.

I always loved taking field trips while I was in school.

APACOPE Secondary School students with Eric concentrating on the interactive sheet.
Photo by Sophia Milosevic Bijleveld - 2008.

Three boys on the patio of the museum.
Photo by Sophia Milosevic Bijleveld - 2008.

Valerie, Eric, Fahad, and I wish to thank Sophia and the rest of the Kandt House Natural History Museum staff for the wonderful opportunity to exhibit art at the museum and the chance to interact with Kigali school children and their teachers. It was such a positive experience for us all.

For those of you coming to Kigali, the museum is open everyday 9:00 - 5:00 except 1 January, 7 April, 1 May, and 4 July. Art of Conservation’s temporary exhibit is up for the next few months. Hope you can visit!

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN)

No responses yet

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 22 2008 | By: Julie

It’s show time in the Northern Province of Rwanda for the children of Nyabigoma Primary School and the adults at Shingiro.

Arriving at the school early to hang the art, Valerie, Eric, Fahad and I are happy it isn’t raining - this traveling art show can easily get damaged from the rains common here in Kinigi.

Eraster and Eliab, two brothers from the Sunday class, quickly search for their art to show their mother.

Fahad describes the Protection / Destruction lesson with three mothers as he points to the resulting artwork.

Eric and a student’s father share comments about the FACIAL EXPRESSION exercise.

Valerie communicates with teachers and parents about the art.

While we were outside with students and families, Gabby from Clinics Rising, has been busy inside the classroom rigging up the laptop and projector to car batteries for the slideshow! Here, Gabby and Valerie are ready to push play.

Laughing and reflecting as we view all of the photographs taken from our three months together.

More scenes from the art show in the next post.
Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

2 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 11 2008 | By: Julie

LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, Part 2.
Paint a forest elephant’s face showing a HAPPY expression. Have fun!

Tapping into our imaginations, we conclude our series of facial expression drawings with the FOREST ELEPHANT. Living next to the protected area of Parc National des Volcans, the Virunga Forest, many of the students have witnessed forest elephants disregard the wall surrounding the park and move to fields near their own houses.

Any of you drink Tusker Beer in Kenya? Watching the children paint these great pictures I was reminded of the Tusker T-shirt design.

Perhaps some of you are getting a sense of joy seeing this work of facial expressions. Let me know if you do. Feel free to send me your drawing of an animal’s expression. I can post it here.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Gorilla Doctors @ WildlifeDirect, Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN)

No responses yet

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 10 2008 | By: Julie

Team AoC sends their condolences to the families and friends of the individuals killed and a speedy recovery to the people injured in Virunga National Park on 9 July 2008.

LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, Part 2

A previous lesson exposed our students to drawing an anatomically correct GOLDEN MONKEY, one of the endangered animals living in the nearby Virunga Forest.

Today, Valerie, Eric, Fahad, and I encourage free play as students draw a golden monkey’s face with what they imagine to be its happy expression.

Three golden monkeys by three artists.

Students have fun with color.

Forest Elephants next…

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Mountain Gorilla Vet Project, Inc. (MGVP), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

No responses yet

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 07 2008 | By: Julie

Thank you for the $200.00 donation, VIRGINIA!!! We can hardly wait for you and your students to come to Rwanda and work with AoC next spring! Thanks for everything you do!

Paula sent this comment to me after she saw the illustrations generated from our Where Do Gorillas Come From? exercise:
This is so beautiful. I wish you’d make a calendar with a selection of the best pictures - I’d buy one!

Theresa, Sherri S. and many more of you share similar interest in purchasing art made by our Art of Conservation students. I’m struggling with the logistics and perhaps you all can help me. The money raised would help generate funds for the project and thus allow Art of Conservation to continue reaching out to as many different communities located next to PNV. It is approximately $100.00 for one student to participate in our free three-month course. The blogs I am posting now represent the work of 150 students, equalling to approximate project costs of $15,000.00 per each three-month course. In a one-year period, AoC works directly and intimately with nearly 450 individuals.

If I design a set of notecards, a T-Shirt and calender with student’s art and also made available student’s original art that is in the dried banana leaf frame made by Alphonsinee, are you all interested in purchasing these things? Pricing, marketing, shipping, etc… needs to be sorted out. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Johnny Cash comes to class - well, at least through speakers connecting to my iPod. Joining him is Diana Ross, The Beatles, Burning Spear, Yo Yo Ma, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, Jimmy Cliff, Elton John, Beethoven and Yo La Tengo. I switch the music off and ask, “How do you feel?” Fine, good, happy are the responses from our class of 50 children.

Not that I want to ruin anyone’s day, but with our exercise today, LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, I want to explore a few more of our emotional states.

Mama Is Sad, a song by Justin Roberts, a native of Des Moines, Iowa where I grew up, conjures sadness. Luciano Pavarotti’s belting evokes curiosity. Giraffe from David S. Polansky’s Animal Alphabet Songs brings us back to happy. Ok, we’re acknowledging more human emotions. Good.

Now, I’m thinking, this song will really bring the house down with deep emotional expression - John Denver’s Calypso - his tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his oceanographic ship. Music is switched off…silence….then quietly someone says, “That’s terrible!” and with this the student’s laughter brings down the house. I laugh too, but come on, I love that song.

Clearly we are loosening up as kids rush to the front of the class and dance as Bob Marley wails on.

Settling back down in our seats, Eric, AoC’s lead art instructor, explains to the children the exercise:

Part 1. With a pencil, quickly draw a classmate’s face showing their HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.

Part 2. With a pencil, draw a golden monkey or forest elephant’s face showing a HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.

Below, photographs of kids getting started on Part 1 by looking at a classmate’s happy expression.

Classmates drawing each other’s HAPPY expression.

You lookin’ at me?

Again, looking at a classmate’s happy expression and quickly drawing to capture emotion on paper.

Their pictures from the day in the upcoming post.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Parc National des Volcans (PNV), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

3 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jul 01 2008 | By: Julie

“Where do gorillas come from?” a student asks our guest speaker, a guide from the park service, (ORTPN). We hear a bit of nervous laughter and no further discussions. I ask myself, “Why?” It isn’t an easy question to tackle, to be sure. Should Team AoC avoid addressing this wonderful question which we receive from nearly every group we work with?

Valerie, Eric, Fahad, and I agree to design a basic interactive lesson about Earth, life, and the great apes, but first we need an evolution timeline crash course of our own! We read and receive help from Dr. Magdalena,
MGVP’s Regional Field Veterinarian. We also agree we need to keep it simple - filling in the spaces of evolutionary development over time. Preparing the students for the following week’s class, we ask them to consider three questions:
1. When was Planet Earth formed?
2. When did life first appear on Earth?
3. Where do gorillas come from?

The approximate time of Planet Earth’s formation seems to be a good place to start. In a previous post, I introduced you to Alphonsine, a Rwandan artist living near Parc National des Volcans, who makes all kinds of things from dried banana leaves. Alphonsine giggled as she walked away with our command of a big round ball, and yet she produced just what we were looking for, Planet Earth.

In the field near the classroom, we take a walk through time, beginning approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Kids meander about Planet Earth.

Stepping forward just a few steps, we stop at the Prokaryote approximately 4 billion years ago, suggesting the simple cell represents first signs of life on Earth.

Now a really big leap on our timeline and we jump to find the ORANGUTAN evolving in Asia approximately 8 million years ago. Volunteers help by wearing papier mache masks made by Eric and Fahad.

Weeks of planning and preparation for the exercise were quickly coming to an end. Valerie and I got somewhat nervous and wanted to see how the masks looked and if they would be ready. We were thrilled when we saw the 5 great ape faces drying in the sun at Fahad’s house. Valerie inspected further by testing the chimpanzee mask. The chimp is my favorite.

Six million years ago GORILLAS were evolving.

HUMINOID, what will become modern human, and CHIMPANZEES split on our evolutionary timeline.

BONOBO’S, Valerie’s favorite of the great apes, branched from CHIMPANZEES approximately 2 million years ago. Above is a photograph of Eric and an adult student from Shingiro.

And here we are, MODERN HUMANS - not a final stopping point, but where we are presently.

After our walk on the timeline, we head into the classroom.
Coming up next, our student’s oil pastel drawings illustrating WHERE DO GORILLAS COME FROM?

My dog Ibyiza helps Eric paint signs.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Gorilla Doctors @ WildlifeDirect, Mountain Gorilla Vet Project, Inc. (MGVP), Parc National des Volcans (PNV), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN)

5 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Community Based Tourism | Date: Jun 16 2008 | By: Julie

Thanks, Paula, Sheryl, Wanda, and Antonio, for your recent comments! It’s great to hear from you all.

Does a country at PEACE help MOUNTAIN GORILLAS? I would say so. The children at Nyabigoma Primary School who are participating in Art of Conservation classes illustrate people caring for people in their drawings as a way of depicting people’s positive impact on the environment.

Recently, at Nyabigoma Primary School, Team AoC had the pleasure of speaking with the governor of the Northern Province of Rwanda, Boniface RUCAGU, as well as the mayor of Musanze District, Celestin KARABAYINGA and Director General of ORTPN, Rosette Chantal RUGAMBA. The governor points to a drawing on display made by one of the children and asks me what it means. I happily share with him that the drawing is a result from our discussions on conservation. And with this particular drawing, the student is expressing his view of a POSITIVE impact people may have on the environment - living in peace and caring for our family and friends. Needless to say, all agreed!

We are standing in front of art made by Art of Conservation students at Nyabigoma Primary School, a school built by means of Rwanda’s tourism revenue sharing scheme. Pictured from left to right: Mayor Celestin KARABAYINGA, ORTPN’s Director General Rosette Chantal RUGAMBA, Governor Boniface RUCAGU, and School Master Cyprien NTABARESHYA.

Bebe NAHAYO’s picture of peace.

Elvis Costello asks, “(What’s so funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?”

AoC student BIZIMANA’s picture.

Special guests and speakers at ORTPN’s function in Kinigi continue on to more locations in which community based programs are operating. School children dance and sing.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Mountain Gorilla Vet Project, Inc. (MGVP), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

4 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jun 11 2008 | By: Julie

Lesson Where Art Shows the NEGATIVE and POSITIVE Impact of People on the Environment.

Below is the final installment, for now, in our series of illustrations from our students showing what they believe to be destructive to our ecosystem. Here the students focus on hunting and setting snares to trap gorillas and other animals in the forest.

Warning! Life if not always a pretty picture.

Killing gorillas. Illustrations #1

Killing gorillas and other animals in the forest. Illustrations #2.

Setting snares and using guns in the forest. Illustrations #3.

Bow and arrows and machetes used to kill gorillas. Illustrations #4.

More illegal activity in the forest. Illustrations #5.

It is visually apparent our students are familiar with what may occur inside the forest, a place bordering on their homes and farms. It is our hope, Team AoC, that during classes we can foster a greater appreciation and awareness of the gorillas and environment not because we told our students they must, but because they choose to for reasons which resonate within. I’m feeling optimistic, especially with the children we work with, that a broader understanding is being recognized of why protecting our ecosystem is so important to us all.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Parc National des Volcans (PNV), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

4 responses so far

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Jun 04 2008 | By: Julie

Three times a week, we load my truck with art supplies along with the prepared lesson of the day and drive up the hills to where we hold art classes - all of which are next to the gorilla park, Parc National des Volcans.

Our ‘art studio on wheels’ presently works with two classes of children and one class of adults. We are more than halfway through our three-month course now.

Guest visitors, Dr. Lucy, Dr. Magdalena, Jean de Dieu NGIRIRA, Odile NYIRAGUHIRWA, all of whom work in or around the park in various capacities, have helped Team AoC instill even greater awareness to our 150 students of the importance of preserving our natural resources, taking care of our own health, and protecting flora and fauna.

Below, watercolor illustrations following the theme of the day, “Lesson where art shows the NEGATIVE and POSITIVE impact of people on the environment.” We continue concentrating on the negative or destructive impacts. If you’re feeling a bit low or discourage by the art shown here, please be patient, soon we’ll present our student’s positive perspectives!

Illegally cutting trees. Illustration #1.

.

Illegal activity in a Protected Area, such as hunting, poaching bamboo, and setting the forest on fire. Illustrations #2.

.

More illegal activity inside Parc National des Volcans. Illustration #3.

.

Hunting with bow, arrow and machete in the forest. Illustration #4.

.

More fire in the forest. Illustrations #5.

.

Rwanda has strict regulations for cutting any tree whether it is inside the forest or outside of the forest. Illustration #6.

Julie

Tags: Art of Conservation (AoC), Gorilla Doctors @ WildlifeDirect, Parc National des Volcans (PNV), Rwanda Park & Tourism (ORTPN), Team AoC (Team Art of Conservation)

One response so far