All Around the World People Check Their Mail

During the early morning in North America, citizens across Canada and the U.S slept or began getting ready for their day while in Europe the early morning turned into midday and another continent away citizens in Asia began winding down their day as it turned into early afternoon, volunteers from Art Relief International began welcoming children to this week’s Young Lions workshop.

As the tune of “Chilli Chilli” filled the air, more and more children entered the yard to create a piece of art that would soon be sent all around the world. This workshop was a special opportunity for the children to share their work with international artists and receive work from those same artists via postcards. 

 
The children clustered around the ARI map as Cee explained the workshop and asked children to locate the countries of the artists, and new friends, the children would be sending their work to. Excitement filled the yard as children reached for small posits labeled with different countries and eager eyes scanned the map in search of a match.

Once all the countries had been found and the children each had a postcard of their own portraits began to be created. One girl who frequently comes to Young Lions, Bam Bam, drew a starry sky resting above a house full of different rooms representing herself and her family. 

    

It’s hard to visit Thailand and not realize how important family is to the individuals living here and Bam Bam’s portrait did a wonderful job expressing the cultural significance of family in Thailand in such a small space. Now Bam Bam, only 8 years old, will be able to share that part of her culture with someone a world away and hopefully have the chance to learn about a culture foreign to her as well.

As the workshop drew to an end the children slowly began heading back home, as all around the world people began waking up and falling asleep.