In 2010, about six months after the earthquake in Haiti killed nearly 160,000 people, an artist based in New Orleans and a children’s art foundation went to the city of Jacmel to start a city beautification project through the medium of tile mosaics.
What Laurel True of True Mosaics Studio and the Art Creation Foundation for Children ended up making over the last few years was an art collective of children who have tiled the entire marketplace area of Jacmel, young adults who manage their own projects and who have since accepted commissions in America.
True told the Huffington Post:
“We focus on how to train kids to start thinking of how to flow this into a small business; how to order supplies, to price things, create a proposal, how to talk to a client, etc.,” explains True. “Over the past few years, I’ve passed the baton on to some of the kids. The older kids are super empowered to say what they think, what they want, state their vision, and just go for it.”
The kids are currently seeking sponsors for other projects around their communities. Please visit the links above for more information if you’re interested in being a patron.
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Children at work tiling walls in Jacmel.
Really wonderful work and great to see the photos of the young people taking part. It looks stunning. Congratulations.
Art making a difference. Beautiful to see what Laurel is creating in Haiti.Thank you for sharing.
Wonderful work of Laurel True and the mosaic community of Jacmel, this is a project that deserve global attention. Congratulations to all the people that is part of it!