Art exhibition and sale for Haiti relief

From a press release from St. James.

On Friday, February 5, 2010, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Art for Haiti Relief Committee and St. James on the Parkway (directions) will host an ‘Exhibition and Art Sale for Haiti’.

The exhibit will display paintings, sculpture, and a variety of artifacts at a variety of prices. These works are for sale to help raise money for the vast needs of victims in Haiti. All proceeds go to victims of the Haitian earthquake for immediate life saving and sustaining uses.

As everyone now knows, this beautiful but poor country and people have suffered incredible destruction. Haitian history, too, has been rife with difficulties: slavery, colonialism, and natural disasters. Haiti’s people, by nature, are peaceful, honest, creative and family-loving, which makes their plight all the more close to the hearts of us who have an easier, safer life.

The artworks on display are primarily from Haiti, plus others from the Caribbean and from tribal cultures in Africa, North and South America, India and Oceania. These art pieces and artifacts are infused with essential life-loving and native esthetics, often pure, simple and vivid. Such works have sometimes been called Naive or Primitive Art; at their heart, they invoke warmth, hope, resilience, and joy.

Haitian work includes small paintings of landscapes, farming and village life, as well as reliefs in thin steel that express fantastic animals, figures with foliage, and a ‘garden of Eden’, made of metal cut from oil drums. Small wood carvings show native figures and enchanting animals. Other items for sale include posters, photographs and Haitian coffee.

The “Exhibition and Art Sale for Haiti” is free to all. Refreshments will be available.

St. Luke’s and St. Alban’s are among Episcopal and other churches helping this one-day activity.

Please help support this relief effort any way you can. Proceeds will be distributed through Partners in Health and Episcopal Relief and Development.