Growing Young SVG Artists 2009

Youlou Arts Foundation 2009 Visual Arts program

"Growing Young SVG Artists". The 2009 program took place from July 13 to July 31. This year's theme was The Banana Industry. During the first week there was the Teacher's Training Workshop which was facilitated by Camille Saunders Musser, who was this year's visiting artist. Twenty teachers attended the workshop. The week was spent talking about the banana industry in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and making projects from the banana plant. The teachers made collages from the trunk of the banana plant and learnt how to extract fibers from the Banana trunk. The teachers were given an informal talk about the people who lived on St. Vincent before the arrival of the Europeans, in preparation for the field trip visit to the Argyle archaeological site. They were also given the words to the Banana Boat Song to teach the children.The children's visual arts program started July 20 and ended July 31.This was the first time the program was held for 2 weeks. Both teachers and children expressed disappointment on the length of the program. As usual the program was held in 3 locations, Georgetown, Barrouallie and Kingstown. There were roughly 120 children who attended the program. The end project for the program was the making of a totem pole by each location using papier mache.The idea was to tie in the history of St. Vincent to the present linking in the banana industry. The Georgetown location chose to portray the volcano on their totem pole and the map of St. Vincent. The pole also had sugar cane, and a man from pre-Columbian times with a bow and arrow hunting. The totem pole from the Barrouallie location portrayed men fishing for black fish in a fishing boat and a big black fish. On the top of the pole were banana leaves and a bunch of bananas growing from the pole. The totem pole from the Kingstown location portrayed the history of the island through its culture. The pole depicts the Europeans coming to the island, the Caribs , the slaves, and the Garifuna people. There were also the musical instruments used by these people, the drums, the steelbpan and the guitar. These poles were painted in bright colours and are above 3 feet tall.On August 2nd Youlou Arts Foundation sponsored its first annual arts fair for children. There were boots for painting model airplanes, butterflies, fans, and paper pinwheels. There was a jewelry making station, another for pottery, volcanic rock painting book making and mask making.

It was a fun afternoon with donkey rides, and lots of food for sale.