Art Teaches Conservation

Art instructor Eric Mutabazi teaches drawing to the Kabeza class.

MGVP's first round of art classes ended this week with a proper art show. What does art have to do with mountain gorilla medicine? The answer is simple: communication. We can't ensure the health of the gorillas by working in a vacuum. Do Rwandans know that their health is connected to that of the gorillas? How can MGVP help people and gorillas live healthier lives? Art gives us a way to explore these ideas together, despite cultural differences.

AoC director Julie Ghrist points out each class's artwork in Kabwende

Artist Julie Ghrist runs the art project, called "The Art of Conservation: Creating a Healthful Connection Between Mountain Gorillas and People." When she and I brainstormed the name, we chose a long descriptive one. It seemed important at the time because we didn't have any artwork to share. Now we do and we're excited about the fact that the art can speak for itself.

A Kabwende class art lesson shows examples of
environmental destruction (top) and protection (bottom).

Julie organized the curriculum so that the students received technical training tied to specific topics. For example, the environment was the subject of the lesson on painting a scene with a human figure. The top half of the paper depicts destruction like setting fires and shooting animals. The lower half illustrates protection like planting trees, tracking gorillas and farming instead of poaching. The art show offers a selection of these themed lessons.

A selection of artwork during screening for the first show.

Choosing the artwork for the show — one piece per student, 150 in all — wasn't easy. Valerie (translator), Eric ( instructor) and I met with Julie for hours to make the selection. We spread the various drawings, pastels and paintings out on Julie's dining room table. One group of pictures, from a lesson on using watercolors to draw a live animal — a gecko — was so good that we wanted to include them all.

MGVP staffer Felicien Mulinda helps hang the show at Kabeza.

I left the team long before they finished matting the artwork and didn't see it again until the first of three shows at Kabeza. Felicien Mulinda, who works as gardener/guard for MGVP helped us put the show up. He wore his new AoC T-shirt, designed by Julie. The design on the front is her original artwork "12 Mountain Gorillas." I asked Felicien later what he thought of the whole event. He answered, "Très bien" (very good.)   

Julie hung the artwork on locally-made bamboo mats so it could be easily moved. Designed to share the art produced by the different classes, the exhibit also served as the final lesson. I made it to all three of the shows. Though I didn't understand the conversation, it was clear that the students were interested and excited. Many found their own work first then moved on to view the rest.

Humans and mountain gorillas share many things, including disease susceptibility, the need for a clean environment, food, shelter and water and a sense of personal hygiene. These ideas were introduced to classes in different ways. At Ninda, Julie arranged for a briefing on HIV/AIDS. Then Eric gave a lesson on drawing a six-panel story board in colored pencil about the presentation. These drawings caught the eye of Ninda community leader Cecile Nyirabahutu during the show.

Translator Valerie Akuredusenge joins Ninda class in song and dance after a lesson.

Though the classes were structured around themed drawing lessons, Julie encouraged — and welcomed — any and all forms of art. Many students wrote poems or songs; some created special dances. At the Ninda class, every lesson ended with some form of music. We learned that Valerie is both an excellent translator and a terrific dancer!

Soprano Virginia Croskery visits the Kabwende primary school class.

Julie invited various guest teachers to the classes, including soprano and music professor, Virginia Croskery. At Kabwende primary school, Virginia greeted everyone with a few verses of "Now I Know My ABCs" and "Doe a Deer." After asking the kids to sing for her, she picked out one tune, changed the Kinyarwanda words, and soon had the whole class singing the "Tooth-Brushing, Hand-Washing and Singing Feels Good Song."

The Kabwende class enjoys acting to music.

Virginia also showed the classes another form of creative expression — acting. After distributing colorful fabric and hats as props, she gave the students a scenario and asked them to act out a solution: your goat is sick, your mother is sick, wind blew the roof off your house and a child is lost on the way to school. The results for each of the three classes were remarkably similar. Students worked together to solve the problems and they had fun!

The Kabwende students view work by the Kabeza class during the show.

The artwork produced by the AoC classes has helped me better understand how Rwandans view the Virunga Volcano Mountain ecosystem. Most have never been in the gorilla's habitat, making the forest a vague, somewhat scary place. While I view farming as potentially damaging to the environment, people living near the park see it as an example of environmental protection. Otherwise, food and shelter would be poached from the park.

Kids in the Kabwende class paint their final art on t-shirts.

The poverty here was a challenge for Julie when she first started the classes. Many people are desperate for something to help raise their standard of living and some of the adult students hoped the art class would give them job training, or even money. Though that was beyond Julie's scope, she did find a way to give each person something special: an AoC t-shirt with his or her own artwork on the front — a souvenir of class participation and achievement.

Julie hands out finished t-shirts to Kabeza class; this design was inspired by ORTPN.

I enjoyed watching Julie hand out the personalized t-shirts to the Kabeza class. One man's design included a gorilla, an elephant, a heart-shaped symbol and the letters O R T P N — the initials of the Office Rwandais du Tourisme et Parcs Nationaux. During my visit to his class I'd explained that the vets work very closely with ORTPN. I was pleased that he'd remembered.

The Ninda class watches a slide show in the makeshift theater.

Julie also wanted to share photos she'd taken during classes with the students. She asked Faustin Nemeye, another of MGVP's gardener/guards, to help create a makeshift cinema out of bits of cloth, plastic tarp and bamboo. We planned to project the slides on a white sheet hung in the shade using our digital projector running off a charged battery for electricity. But on a bright, sunny day, creating shade turned out to be a challenge.

Everyone said, "No problem ("Ntakibazo" in Kinyarwanda,) we can make it dark enough using everyone's spare scarves." The theater worked wonderfully, though it looked more like a bowling alley. The Ninda students smiled and laughed during the slide show, seeing themselves at work drawing, acting and singing. Once again, Julie had found a way to give something back to the students.

Ninda class member, Sebakarabingwa, tries out a new guitar.

The AoC is still a new project and we need to find ways to get the art — all forms — into the community. The classes have already made one thing clear: Rwandans living near the gorilla park want to feel and be healthy. They want to improve their daily hygiene. And I see a way that MGVP and its partners can help: by providing a decent supply of handkerchiefs, soap and toothbrushes to accompany the songs that explain why they matter.

[Rwanda, Sept. 1, 2007. Pictures: Lucy Spelman/MGVP]

Comments

[Lisa, California]

I love all the art work. Just like Art Helping Mountain Gorilla's online auction that is happening today to benifit Wildlife Direct, someone should organize an online auction of this beautiful artwork and raise some money for these people. You guys are doing a tremendous job.

Also, Can you give us an update as to how the babies are doing? Thanks a bunch.

[Sheryl]

Great post. I really enjoyed the art work and I want one of those T-shirts!

I hope things aren't as tense where you are as they are for the rangers on the DR Congo side of the park.

s.