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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.441.60, Connecticut Historical ...
Exhibit Events - Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.441.60, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Exhibit Events - Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa

Subject
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Subject (Puerto Rican)
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Date2008-2009
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.441.60-.71
DescriptionPhotographs from the "Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa" exhibition and exhibit events.

(.60) Image of ICR staff and exhibit curator Marit Dewhurst in front of objects from the Siyazama exhibit on display.

(.61-.62) Images of Marit Dewhurst, Fredrick Douglass Knowles, and Colleen Coleman (ICR staff) in the gallery at a Siyazama event.

(.63) Image of Jean Schensul (ICR staff) and Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez in the gallery at a Siyazama event.

(.64-.65) Images of unidentified people in the gallery at a Siyazama event.

(.66) Image of Margaret Weeks (ICR staff), Mark Gentry, and an unidentified person in the gallery at a Siyazama event.

(.67-.68) Images of curator Marit Dewhurst speaking in the gallery at a Siyazama event.

(.69) Image of the reception at a Siyazama event.

(.70) Image of unidentified people at a Siyazama event.

(.71) Image of Damion Morgan (ICR staff) at a Siyazama exhibit event looking at a display with a young visitor.
NotesSubject Note for 2015.196.441.1-.8 & 2015.196.441.60-.71: Subject Note: ICR’s CT Cultural Heritage Arts Program hosted the exhibit Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa in the ICR Gallery from April 16, 2009 to July 10, 2009. ICR partnered with AIDS Project Hartford (APH) and the CT AIDS Resource Coalition (CARC) as well as local artists working in innovative ways to inform and educate about the virus, to produce three events and assist with event promotion. We also had excellent support from Yale’s Center on Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) and UConn’s Center for Health Intervention and Prevention (CHIP). The project brought new audiences to ICR, established new partnerships, and helped to bring the arts together with medical and social interventions in a new way. The art works told personal stories of sadness and resilience among those affected by AIDS, and presented powerful, culturally appropriate educational and prevention messages that have saved lives in South Africa.

"Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa" featured beadwork, story quilts, dolls and other folk arts that were created by those suffering with AIDS as a way to educate others about prevention and treatment. Organized and circulated by Michigan State University Museum, "Siyazama" included 120 objects in traditional art forms such as beadwork, dolls, wire baskets, and story quilts made in South Africa by rural craftswomen. The Siyazama Project began in 2002 as a way to educate and empower women who suffered the worst consequences of the devastating AIDS epidemic in SA, by educating them and others about prevention and health practices while encouraging production of their beautiful folk arts as an income source for families. Folklorists and curators at Michigan State University joined the project to gather a collection of the art works and develop a traveling exhibit for the US. As part of its only East Coast showing, the exhibit served as a springboard for public events that offered information, stimulated discussion, and encouraged compassion and creativity in confronting the AIDS crisis.

The primary project goal was to raise awareness about the serious AIDS epidemic both in Africa and locally among African-American populations where it was growing fast at that time. The project also showcased local health resources such as prevention and education programs that use art as both an intervention and a healing tool.

Events held as part of the exhibit at ICR:
At the opening, Siyazama curator Marit Dewhurst from the Museum of Modern Art in NYC gave a talk on her collection of the art works in South Africa and the background to the project. Shawn Lang and others from AIDS Project Hartford and CARC talked about their work locally to develop new education and intervention methods to prevent the virus. CeCe Jones and the Sing For Change project performed.

On May 28, film maker Sarah Friedland screened her film "Thing With No Name," about the effect of AIDS on two women in South Africa, and she led an audience talkback with Shawn Lang from CARC.

On June 5 ICR presented a day-long forum on innovative education and dissemination methods for combatting HIV/AIDS. We partnered with UConn’s Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention; and Yale’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. Speakers were global - from Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, China, India, and Hartford. ICR presented its innovative work using urban artistic styles to convey important prevention messages about HIV/AIDS.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.9-.12: The Karen are a group of tribal people living in the hills of northern Burma and northern Thailand. Forced out of Burma by repressive military governments since 1975, Karen refugees relocated to camps in Thailand. Over 200 Karen have settled in Hartford in recent years, bringing with them excellent musical and textile skills. Many Karen can weave their own cloth, making traditional shirts, sarongs, and shoulder bags. Although the preferred materials for looms and cloth can be difficult to find, family members build looms for the weavers using PVC pipes instead of bamboo. Mu Wah learned all the techniques of weaving from her mother starting at the age of ten. She and weaver Hser Nay Paw came to Hartford in 2007, joining the Sewing Circle Project as a way to continue their cultural heritage. Myint Khin arrived in Connecticut in early September 2013, to reunite with her family. She learned to weave from teachers in the Thailand camp, and has now taught her four daughters.

Karen women and men weave their fine cotton cloth on backstrap looms that can be rolled up and transported from place to place. First the threads are stretched out in a continuous loop around an upright frame with wooden or bamboo posts that hold the yarn tight. Then this set of threads still on the posts is lifted off the frame and turned horizontally to form the warp that is now stretched out as the basis of the cloth. The weaver ties one of the posts to a stationary object such as a tree, with the other post in front of her and tied at either end to a strap around her back. Leaning back to create tension on the warp threads, she can weave back and forth between the threads to create cloth. Intricate patterns with dyed threads are woven into the base cloth, and weavers will sometimes embellish the cloth with embroidery and beads made of seeds. Specific patterns can tell stories or reflect inspirations and knowledge from nature, in a kind of visual narrative. Different colors and stripe patterns can denote marital status or occupations of the person wearing the cloth.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.14-.19: The Institute for Community Research (ICR) is an independent nonprofit organization which conducts applied research and community enhancement programs to promote equal access to health, education, and cultural resources. ICR's location within the community reflects its mission, which emphasizes the use of original research as a way to address serious contemporary issues and problems while strengthening community-based resources in areas of health, education and culture. CCHAP began at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford in 1991, continuing there until 2015, to research, assist, and present the state’s community-based artists along with their community histories and heritage activities. ICR hosted a World AIDS Day event.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.20-.22: The Hmong community in Connecticut, around 300 in number, is based mostly in the Enfield and Manchester areas. They work in factories and service occupations, as well as skilled manufacturing, often in aerospace industries. The Hmong came to the United States as refugees from the Indochina wars in the 1970s after the Communist takeover of Laos, sponsored by the American government because many Hmong assisted the military and the CIA. At that time the Hmong were persecuted in Laos, and this still continues today with considerable fighting going on. The Hmong are a tribal group originally from Mongolia who migrated to Laos where many still live today. There are also Hmong communities in northern Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and China (where they are called Miao).

Connecticut Hmong people are both traditional and contemporary. Older women used to make the gorgeous applique and embroidery work known as paj ndau, and they still create traditional costumes for women and men, albeit with modern shortcuts (traditional dyeing techniques are replaced by printed cloth, for instance). Men who are traditional community leaders, such as Boua Tong Xiong, still perform wedding and funeral rituals, as well as conflict resolution according to time-honored practices. Hmong traditions practiced in Connecticut include embroidery and story cloths, funeral and wedding songs, music on the bamboo instrument qeej, ballads and courtship songs kwv ntxhiaj, and social dancing. Hmong leaders started the Hmong Foundation of Connecticut as a way to keep the community together and continue to provide many kinds of needed assistance. The Foundation, which is led by a Board of Directors, is open to all Hmong living in the state. Members provide services such as translation, transportation, family relocation to Connecticut, assistance with finding jobs and access to health care, Hmong language classes, and traditional Hmong advising and dispute resolution. The Hmong Foundation of Connecticut became a separate organization in 1996 after the Connecticut Federation of Refugee Assistance Agencies, an umbrella service group, disbanded. The group sponsors Hmong New Year in November and a celebration for Hmong high school graduates in June.

The Hmong have a number of sub-cultural groups; one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Blue Hmong is their custom of batiking cloth with blue indigo. One specific kind of textile that the Hmong have become known for are the “story cloths”. These are a comparatively new genre first made in the Thai refugee camps around 1975. In these embroidered pieces, direct figurative references are made to folk tales, myths, personal family stories, and scenes of village life. These story cloths also depict the turbulence and hardships of the war years in Southeast Asia. Hmong textile works also include many references to the natural world, to the plants and animals, which are native to the hills of Laos. (Winifred Lambrecht, Ph.D (CCHAP project partner); July 2006)

Hmong New Year, Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab, is the Hmong community’s most important annual festival. The New Year festival, always held late in the year, includes the ball toss, a game between young people that is a courtship ritual; a fashion show of different tribal costumes; a cultural presentation of dance and song; and a community-prepared feast with traditional foods. The spiritual connotation of the festival is for thanksgiving and new beginnings, and to honor ancestors. Hmong participants wear traditional dress, make speeches, and sing songs appropriate to the celebration. New Year also serves as a reminder and practice of traditions, as well as a gathering of cultural and social leaders.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.23-24: The Sewing Circle Project began in 2007 as an initiative to encourage production, marketing, and sustainability of traditional crafts among the many immigrant and refugee communities in the Greater Hartford area and across the state. Developed by the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CCHAP) based at the Institute for Community Research (ICR) in Hartford and at the Connecticut Historical Society after 2015, the project supported the remarkable traditional arts of these newcomers. Members of the Sewing Circle met regularly at ICR and also at the Hartford Public Library to work on their art forms, learn new skills, and share coffee and conversation. This cooperative environment fostered social interaction among the artists and public audiences, respected and encouraged their cultural heritage and artistic traditions, stimulated literacy improvement, and helped to develop marketplaces for their artwork. CCHAP organized gatherings, exhibits, workshops, marketplace events, promotional materials, and educational activities for the group’s participants. While most of the artists experienced war, trauma, and dislocation, they continue to practice their cultural heritage and artistic traditions, blending these with current experiences and materials to create artwork that is both beautiful and functional. Even when immigrants and refugees embrace a move that takes them to a more stable and prosperous place, resettlement poses challenges of physical and psychological adaptation. Many new Americans have eased transition by continuing, recreating, or reinventing familiar art forms. For many members of refugee communities now living in New England, practicing their familiar arts of weaving, knitting, basket making, lace making, music, dance, and storytelling helps them to cope with the trauma of the genocide and displacement their families have suffered.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.25-.39: CCHAP collaborated with The Clare Gallery to present "Weaving a New Life: The Refugee Artists Sewing Circle," a multi-media exhibition from January 22 to February 22, 2009 featuring textile arts created by recent refugees and more longstanding immigrants to the Greater Hartford area. A reception was held on February 17, with participating artists demonstrating their weaving and needlework techniques. The Sewing Circle began in 2007 as an exciting initiative to encourage production and marketing of traditional crafts among the many immigrant communities in the Greater Hartford area and across the state, initiated by the Institute for Community Research’s Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program based in Hartford. Lynne Williamson, Director of CCHAP at ICR, introduced the artists and described the history of the project, the diverse artwork and traditions of the artists, and the project’s importance to the Hartford community.

"Weaving a New Life: The Refugee Artists Sewing Circle" highlights a collection of global crafts made by artists including Fatuma Ahmed, a Somali basket weaver; Fatima Vejzovic, a Bosnian rug weaver; Melka and Mevlija, Bosnian crochet and knit workers; Florence Betgeorge, an Assyrian lace maker; Mai Xiong and Mai Lee, Hmong embroiderers; Elena Cupceancu, a Romanian needleworker; Kannah Zealey, a Liberian tailor; Yvonne Ntakiratimana, a Burundi crochet and embroidery expert; Somali weaver Fatuma Ahmed; Burmese Karen weavers Pwe Say Paw and Nu Wah, and several other textile artists. Though most of the artists have experienced war, trauma, and dislocation, they continue to practice their cultural heritage and traditions, blending these with current experiences to create artwork that is both beautiful and functional. Many immigrants and refugees have come to live in the Hartford area. CCHAP, working with local refugee groups and service providers, identified the need for an initiative that would develop and market the remarkable skills of these newcomers. The Sewing Circle Project members met regularly to work on their art forms and share coffee and conversation. This supportive environment provided social interaction among the artists, recognition of their cultural heritage and artistic traditions, stimulated literacy improvement, and helped to locate marketplaces for their artwork. Sewing Circle participants have sold their work in Hartford at the Hartford Library World Refugee Day; Open Studio Weekends; the International ICR Conference; and as regular vendors at the Billings Forge Farmers Market on summer Thursdays. The project also offered small business training to the artists, through grants from the Aurora Foundation, the Aetna Foundation, and the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund.

The Clare Gallery primarily features exhibitions that emphasize world religions or interfaith themes, as well as social justice themes, on either a global or local level. The Gallery is housed in the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry at 285 Church Street in Hartford, Connecticut. The Center is part of St. Patrick – St. Anthony Church, a vibrant and active downtown faith community.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.40-.59: Connecticut was a major resettlement site for Southeast Asians in the 1980s. The Laotian population numbers over 3,000, living primarily in urban areas such as New Britain. While Laotians have found employment in factories, service industries, farming, and trades such as food, they continue to face barriers of language, lack of education, and lower income levels, all against a common backdrop of serious emotional wounds from the Vietnam War era. Youth aged 10-19 years old are by far the largest age group among Connecticut Southeast Asians. Maintaining young peoples’ awareness of heritage, culture, values, and language is a major goal of Laotian leaders and parents. The Lao community sustains its traditional cultural practices in several ways. Several temples around the state provide gathering places where Buddhist monks and nuns offer spiritual services and cultural festivals. The largest temple is in Morris, where the resident monk Khoutnavong has created exquisite Buddhist statues and traditional architecture with symbolic carvings, ornamentation, and shrines. Dancer and educator Manola Sidara directs Lao Narthasin, a traditional dance group now in its third generation of dancers. They perform classical, folk, and social dances that highlight cultural values such as respectful behavior and appreciation for elders. Manola specializes in creating ceremonial decorations that express wellness, spirituality, and bonding during community celebrations, and she also promotes health and healing through her work as a master chef. The Laotian Association of Connecticut (LAC) formed in 1980 to unite the community and assist in economic development, cultural preservation, and education. For many years LAC offered classes in language, history, food and medicine, verbal arts, traditional music, and singing at Jefferson School in New Britain, and the group organizes several heritage festivals each year at the Morris temple that are attended by hundreds of Laotians.


Subject Note for 2015.196.441.40-.59: Laotian New Year is celebrated in Connecticut by members of the Lao community each April. They gather at temples for religious ceremonies, and hold special banquets that feature music and dance by local dance groups such as Lao Narthasin led by dance educator and chef Manola Sidara. Other events included an annual presentation by the students of Lao Saturday School which ran for many years at Jefferson School in New Britain organized by Manola Sidara and Howard and Sue Phengsomphone. Many of these events are organized by the Lao Association of Connecticut. Many Lao New Year celebrations involve guest artists from other cultural backgrounds and traditions. In 2008 and 2009, CCHAP collaborated with WNPR’s acclaimed radio discussion show "Where We Live" to document several ethnic festivals across the state. Words and sound were woven together by us to create podcasts and audio slide shows that take viewers and listeners right to the festivals.


Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to these communities and artists.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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