The Global Canvas Project a.k.a. Projeto Igarai supported by Illinois-Sao Paulo Partners of the America
Several Illinois-Sao Paulo Partners of the Americas members contribute to support and fund The Global Canvas Project a.k.a. Projeto Igarai. This project is an innovative trans-cultural arts collaboration linking youth from Brazil and Chicago through the internet and actual art projects. Artist/educators, Jon D. Neumann and Isac Enriquez, from Chicago’s South Side, are creating an art project intended to link youth through creative actions that allow for a free-exchange of ideas and cultural expression.During the 2009 summer Jon and Isac are very excited to be artists-in-residence in Mococa, at Fazenda Ambiental Forteleza, an historic coffee farm, and to be partnering with Café Igarai, a cooperative of skilled craftswomen and Grupo Tumm, a local social service organization to forge a positive social force linking two continents through the arts. In the hopes of developing art projects that literally link youth from across the world, Neumann and Enriquez will collaborate with this team to create their first cross-cultural mural in Mococa.During the months of July and August, the artists will be conducting workshops that explore the arts of Hip Hop with local teens as a strategy to design and paint a mural in Mococa, and as a catalyst for the teens to share their interests in Hip Hop with teens in Chicago, engaging in creative dialogue about their lives, and advancing their knowledge of the world. The artists will share their passions about Chicago-style Hip Hop artists, and they will teach the teens graphic arts, calligraphy, character design, use of color and composition, various graffiti and painting techniques and break dancing.