The Institute for Humanitarian Art

Sometimes, the 2 hour commute to the North Cascades is just enough time to let an idea blossom:

I just found the most amazing organization, something that completely matches my interests and experiences. The Institute for Humanitarian Art is a non-profit based in NYC that builds partnerships between artists, international aid agencies/other NGOs, and the general public. Their capstone program is a unique artist residency with numerous organizations like Amnesty International, the World Wildlife Fund, Doctors without Borders, and the Peace Corps. Artists commit to a period, ranging from a month to a year, and divide their time between volunteering with a specific organization and pursuing art projects that reflect their experience and/or document that particular social/environmental/political issue. It’s very hands-on, like working at a HIV testing clinic in rural Africa or an organic shade-grown Starbucks coffee plantation. Since the Institute has a fairly prominent museum and gallery space, the artist is then guaranteed an exhibition about return. Sales are spilt 3 ways between the artist, the specific host organization, and the IHA. It’s a total win-win situation. IHA also makes a lot of their money through coffee-table-type books. The main mission of the IHA is to bring awareness of global issues like poverty, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, women’s rights, war, etc, etc…through various art mediums (photography, painting, sculpture, design, writing, video, etc, etc). There’s a great permanent collection at the museum, with an interpretive staff that facilitates tours as well as discussions/debates. I just love this idea of art being transformative and educational, of art with a purpose higher than material wealth. Obviously, I need to work for this organization.

I keep thinking ahead to life after college and this would be the absolute dream job. Except that it doesn’t exist yet. Seriously, I just made it up. Too bad huh, cause that’d be perfect for me. But I honestly believe that it doesn’t have to be some unattainable dream, or that I have to wait for someone else to do it first. What if this was what I did with my life?; create the Institute for Humanitarian Art. The more I look at my skills/talents/interests/initiative, of what I’ve done so far in my life and what I can potentially do, the less I’m sure that a life spent alone in a studio all day is my true path. Yes I love making my art projects, but I also love working and organizing people to pull of projects larger than anything I could ever create on my own. I think I have the vision, organization, and leadership to pull off something like this (or at least, get it going). I’m also keenly aware that I would have to surround myself with people of similar passion level, but with different skills (like grant writing or public policy). I just think this idea could be so huge- all of the elements are in place right now: social injustice in the world, artists looking for work, consumers looking for art (especially this “feel-good” type art they’d be purchasing), NGO’s looking for publicity and money. All I’m doing is rearranging the relationships and networks between these groups so that positive changes can be made at all levels. It’s unique, it hasn’t been done, and it has potential for so much good.

Is this even possible to create? Is this some naïve fantasy of an idealistic college student? My mind is racing with all the logistics of pulling something like this off during my life, but I think it could happen. Work small, one residency, one exhibition at a time, and then 25 years later, we’ve got a space in NYC. I think that all my skills as an interpreter/educator, all my experience working in committees, with administrators, with artists and students, all my future activities like Mali and interning in NYC…these all set the stage for knowing how to do this. The key is not that I have to create it by myself, but that I know who to work with, whom to ask, where to go. If anything I’ve learned about the real world, it’s all about who you know.

In any case, that was my musing from yesterday’s drive to work. It’s still fresh in my mind, still hopeful, but I’m afraid that it might fade through daunting logistics. I’m looking forward to chewing on this for awhile, to getting experiences that might make this idea more clear. I’m also realizing that I have an awesome opportunity as a senior to do this as a thesis. What if instead of a traditional senior show of paintings in a gallery, I created a real-world proposal that consisted of a business plan, graphic identity, publications, and website. Something I could use to approach, oh say, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and ask for a grant to start this up.

Phew. Anyway. I hope you enjoyed my brain-chatter. What an interesting summer it’s turned out to be. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. At the very least, it’s forcing me to think of my role as an artist, and indeed, a global citizen.

(photo from jamesnatchway.com)