Art Miles Mural Project
We are creating 12 miles of murals in support of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and it is in it's final year (2001-2010). The murals are original works of art created through a process that brings people together through dialogue and communication. We have done several murals with Iraqi refugees in Jordan, but would love to have some murals from Jordan to add to the collection of 5,280 murals (4,000 completed so far), representing JORDAN. We plan to create a MURAMID (an installation exhibition using multi media, 3D projection and selected physical murals)in Egypt on the International Day of Peace on September 21, 2010. We would love to have schools and organizations in Jordan join this effort and welcome you to visit our website at http://artmiles.org
The project started in Bosnia on a bullet riddled bed sheet where 350 orphans painted the first mural after five days of discussion, crying, grieving and building consensus. The title of the mural was Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Since that time, our all volunteer organization operating under the United Nations Association, USA San Diego, has managed to complete the 4,000 murals with over 1/2 million people from more than 100 countries. We believe we have facilitated the greatest collection of children, youth and adult art in this first decade of the 21st century. The hopes of all the painters is that we can honor Queen Rania, Mrs. Mubarak, Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Calderon for their incredible support of children and women and the quest for PEACE.
We have found that the language of the arts overcomes all barrier of language, politics and religion and as a result have managed to create an International Intercultural Mural Exchange where two schools and two countries partner, work through video conferencing together to design ONE MURAL and it has become a huge success with formal curricula to help teachers. From this, the MUSAIC project organically emerged, where students, inspired by mural art compose original music and are now participating in the creation of the FIRST International Virtual Youth Orchestra. Imagine...all this with a 100% volunteer organization and strictly donations of materials and supplies or services where needed (time!). Proof that volunteerism works. After 12 years of doing this we are living proof!
Young people have also taken these arts (mural painting and music) and started creating their own videos...an awesome array of creative expression and if you click on the videos on our site you will see the result of their efforts.
This project belongs to the world and it is not about US. It is about the children and youth and women and people of the world. Because of our simplicity, we have had a real challenge of getting people and the bureaucracy to pay attention to the voices of this visual documentation of modern history; with some of them stating that we MUST certainly be funded or supported by some special interest. Our only special interest is teaching a Culture of Peace through the arts, and we hope you will join us and the other 1/2 million people in proving that their voices will be heard and SEEN. Contact us at http://artmiles.org and Thank you for reading through our appeal for your volunteer efforts to have Jordan respectably represented this coming fall in Egypt.