Karli's list

Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen. --Leo Tolstoy

What do a fishing village in Egypt, a community in Capetown, South Africa, a school for orphans in Zimbabwe, and a village school in a Millennium village in Rwanda have in common? Artists. These are my favorite stories -- about people who just start where they are with whatever they have, using their talent and their connections to create, connect, and contribute.

Meet Karli, who, at only 22, is an example of why we have big hopes for the Y generation. Through a Millennium Village contact, Karli organized a project to teach art to kids at the Millennium Village in Mayange sector in Rwanda, near the epicenter of the 1994 genocide. Last summer, after graduating with honors from Parsons School of Design, she found sponsors, raised money for supplies and equipment, loaded up "a
ton of suitcases filled with supplies," and traveled to Rwanda to spend an unforgettable week teaching art to kids.

During her workshops, Karli worked with the kids to express themselves as artists and designers, to tell their own personal stories through painting and drawing, cinematography, and collage. At first, Karli says, there was "no connection" -- the kids were learning what glue sticks were, and all her instructions had to go through an interpreter. But once the first collages were done and the kids began to talk about their work to one another, they began to open up. By the time they got to the video camera class, the kids were wild about seeing themselves on the screen, and were creating short films filled with dancing and laughing. (You can click on the pic to get a full-screen view of those faces!)

Karli came up with the idea because she said her own art education -- in welding, video, drawing, and painting -- helped her learn about herself, not just as an artist but as a person, and she wanted to share that experience with the kids.

Needless to say, it was a profound experience for Karli and for the kids. "It affected me, and it was important to me that they could be affected, too," she says simply.

The trip sparked many ideas for Karli. She's got a list of projects she's working on to benefit Millennium Village schools. Though she would like to go back and personally teach children in Mayange again, she's also really excited about a summer intern project proposal for Parsons sophomores and juniors: She'd like to create an ongoing and sustainable model for conducting art and design workshops for kids in collaboration with the Millennium Villages -- so other visiting art students can have the opportunity she had, and so schools will have an art curriculum in place for local teachers to use, too.

As an artist, Karli was drawn to beautiful patterned baskets made by women in Rwanda. She's in the process of raising awareness through her New York fashion and art connections about the baskets and designs, and hopes to create opportunities for the basket-makers to create designer label handbags that can be sold directly through galleries and art shows.

And if that's not enough, she's looking into projects like Cinereach, to use film as a medium to address social differences in Rwanda. Not a bad list.

I'm with Liz, when she says in her recent column,

The next leaders of our communities and of the world will be people who grew up aware of the ways in which we are all connected. Just like any U.S. kid recycles way more than any U.S. adult, every single member of this generation is growing up in a world that's starting to think of itself far more in terms of a global community.

Karli and her students are now connected and aware of each other, and they're each going to be able to use that awareness to more easily create future connections. And I would add to that: the more art, music, dancing and laughter, the better. Go Karli! We're inspired.

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