International Art Project Between Children of Morija, Lesotho, and Whitehouse, Ohio, America, Developed by Artists Patrick Rorke & Shari Densel

The Project and how it all began…..

Notes from Shari Densel on the development of a great student project and learning experience:

In the summer of 2011, I had the incredible experience of co-leading a seminar for U.S. secondary art and social studies teachers that included five weeks of travel in the countries of South Africa and Lesotho. The program was funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program. In order to give participants:

• knowledge of international issues and Southern African culture and politics, through study and first-hand experience

• to internationalize their own curriculum and classrooms

• to develop and disseminate a curriculum to be shared with other educators and school systems that integrated the social sciences and art to address issues related to the quest for personal and social meaning.

About a week into the tour we located ourselves in Morija, a mountain village in Lesotho were I met the artist Patrick Rorke. The more we talked the more I realized his name sounded so familiar. I discovered he was one of the original artists selected to be a part of the art that became an integral part of South Africa's new Constitutional Court. He created 200 copper carved plates in a permanent installation at this nationally significant venue. He has lived in South Africa and Lesotho off and on throughout his life and career. Patrick currently lives in Morija were he grew up with his lovely wife, Aasha. Aasha, also an artist, currently runs Maeder House, a wonderful little art gallery of a small but growing community of artist, crafters, and creative spirits.

As Patrick and I conversed, I discovered he was also volunteering to teach art at a school in Morija. I told him about an international mural project I had organized last year between my students in the U.S. and students from Tanzania. He loved the idea of an international exchange project and we made time to work out the details.

We developed a lesson titled "How Do I Fit Into The World?" Children from his class and mine will spend the next year communicating through email and this blog site to learn more about each other. Then they will create images that reflect their thoughts about where they fit in the world or how they want to fit into the world in the future.

The students will then each create a copper carved plate that reflects t their idea. Once all of the plates are completed we will bring them together to create an international installation. Our vision is for the plates to hang from the ceiling wherever they are displayed, so that the viewer can walk in and out of the pieces. One side of each plate will contain the student illustration. On the other side will be the student's statements. We plan to also incorporate videotaped interviews from the students regarding this year-long process.

With nearly 74 copper images created by individual students, we are confident that this display will be full of powerful, positive message from today’s youth. We hope to be able to display the student’s artistic message in many various venues, such as government buildings as well as galleries in both countries and other parts of the world.

As the project develops and the final touches are added, we will be looking for ways to obtain support to finance shipping and installation and will be seeking out sponsorships, donations and grants.

Ultimately if this first year goes well we would like to add plates created by other children from other countries, so that each year this installation could grow with the voices from every continent.

We welcome and invite all to follow our blog and discover how this project develops over the next year. It will be an amazing learning experience!