Hi Winchester Cultural Council team,
I'm Lulu Tian -- a Winchester resident and WHS alum ('18) who has been working in East Africa doing documentary filmmaking for the past year, and I've also started 2 libraries in Uganda's refugee camps this January. I hope you had a nice weekend -- I stopped by Art in the Park yesterday, which was awesome.
My library project is called Creative Learning Haven. I've attached a report on our work, and more info can be found on our GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/uganda-refugee-library-project. We're 100% crowdfunded and have already reached >800 people, stocked >2000 books, run 4 mobile libraries, and run programs like art, creative writing, and literacy.
We've recently paired 5 Winchester youths with 5 youths in Uganda (ages 15 - 20) to exchange conversation and create art according to the same prompts. We're calling it Art Pen Pals (APP). We showed some refugee youth art at the farmer's market in June: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/177-E_ukkaIHUaoGcYmvIgRMaNVzUNs-C
The APP exchange is ending late September. I'm really excited to see what art emerges from the exchange, and I'd really love to know if there's any interest in showing it! Ideally we were hoping to show the work of Winchester youths and their pen pals in Winchester.
I would love to chat more! I'm specifically wondering:
- Are you accepting applications for the WCC Microgrant program?
- Would you have any ideas for Winchester venues open to hosting an exhibit, or other ways to share artwork from this pen pal program?
- Other ways for our program to participate in and contribute to the Winchester arts community?
Would you have time this week Mon - Wed to chat more in person? I will be out of town after Wednseday for work until labor day weekend, but also happy to hop on a call.
Thanks so much! It's been so nice meeting you all, and I hope to continue sharing and learning together.
Kindly,
Lulu
