The Noyes Museum goes to Haiti for Project H.E.A.R.T.

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Photos courtesy of Michael Cagno
A small group from the Noyes Museum traveled to Haiti last month. For four mornings, the group worked with children. The kids are pictured above.

by Michael Cagno, Gazette Contributing Writer

Part one of two.
Natural light flooded the room as the children walked through the exhibition with smiles stretched across their faces while their eyes lit up with confidence and amazement. On display were more than 150 works of original art created by talented children.
Watercolor landscapes, charcoal drawings of faces and people playing soccer, hand made books filled with love and hope proudly staked their spot on the walls, tables and chairs throughout the room.
To the causal observer this may seem as an ordinary children’s art exhibition, but outside those walls told a very different story. Surrounded by barbed wire and broken glass cemented on top of the walls was the only protection of this sacred space.
Torn-up roads, abandoned vehicles and collapsed houses surrounded them. The sounds of helicopters and UN vehicles constantly echoed through the neighborhood.
For four mornings, members of a small team from The Noyes Museum of Art of Richard Stockton College worked with these children at the “Let the Children” Mission in the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Project H.E.A.R.T (Haiti Emergency Art Relief Team) was a grassroots project with a mission to provide an opportunity for children, in this devastated third world county, to engage in the visual arts. This four-member team included: Michael Cagno, Executive Director of the Noyes; Dorrie Papademetriou, Director of Exhibitions and Collections; Celeste Safeer, Stockton College student; and Florcy Morrisset, Vivant Gallery owner from Philadelphia who specializes in Haitian Art.
The Noyes team arrived every morning at the mission at 8 a.m. with children eagerly waiting by the gate. For four hours every day outside, under a large blue tarp, the children engrossed themselves in the creative process. The only thing that separated these children from each other was age, which spanned from 5 to 19 years old.
Side by side, without breaks, they painted, wrote and sang. Their voices sounded like angels, inspiring each other and inspiring the Noyes team. Florcy was the translator who explained to the children the practical elements in order to complete the projects correctly, but it was everyone’s hearts that truly created the bond.
In the afternoon, the team traveled south to the Petion Ville area, about a thirty-minute drive southeast. There the team worked with FAVAJ, a children’s camp that focused on basic needs like food, shelter and medicine.
There were more than 40 children at this camp ranging in ages from 2 to 10 years old. The space was very confined and limited. There were only three small rooms with an average size of 10-feet-by-12 feet. The walls were concrete and there was only one small window in each room. There was no electric, limited chairs and plywood planks were used as a table.
The children, like those from the mission, were not daunted by their surroundings when it came time to create. They embraced watercolor painting, mask-making and cutting out designs of lizards and hearts.
At the end of the week, the children grabbed all the work they created and formed a procession down the street to their play yard.
It was their first art parade, and they were very proud to show off their designs to the neighborhood. It should be noted, that the play yard, often used to play soccer is misleading. It was a collapsed building that crumpled into many pieces.
Measuring only 20-feet-by-40-feet, it lined with waist-high razor wire on the one side and a 20-foot drop on the other side, without any protective barriers. Their soccer goals were cinder blocks. The ground was littered with stones and broken glass. Some of the children didn’t have shoes. Their soccer ball resembled a round rag doll. To their delight, once we gave them a brand new soccer ball, you would think they were playing for the World Cup.
The children of Haiti are resilient, but they are children, and like our children, need to be given a chance.
Michael Cagno is the executive director of The Noyes Museum of Art of Richard Stockton College. He and a small group traveled to Haiti in August.