Cara a Cara || Face to Face

It was now the beginning of August and the Olympics were in full swing, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom; I made a breakthrough with the Embassy and managed to get an outline of our project in front of the Consulate for consideration and was waiting to hear from them. I got put through to John Bird’s PA (Julie) and she said he was really interested in our project, although he currently was on holiday and we should talk again in a couple of weeks. December, Julie said (I’d originally put this forward in my email) might be tricky as xmas was a really busy and important time for the Big Issue and the homeless. How naive I was, not taking this into account in the original plan – of course the end of the year would make sense to us, with people spending money, wanting to give to charity etc. but a crucial time for them, should we want John on board. Thankfully I was immediately able to explain that we were now possibly looking at a later date.

Things were happening so fast, I still had to run the delay by the artists to make sure this would work for them. Thankfully they were actually quiet relieved I think, and fully supportive.

A new challenge arose though – now we needed new photos of the children to work with, Philly was struggling to get enough children on board. It was bad news in that without children the project was a non-starter, but good news in that if we could now get a fresh group of children together then we would be more likely to make the reciprocity nature of the project work. The artists all got images to me by the agreed date and I send them on to Bolivia, together with some funds for art materials. Meanwhile Philly tried to work out how to engage enough children on the project. Many of them knew nothing about life outside Sucre, never mind wanting to involve themselves with a project that was so far away. To give you some idea, we are talking about 7-12 year olds; this would be tricky with most children never mind amongst these children who have so little. There was hope though, another organisation in the town that runs libraries for the communities, encouraging them to read and write, was keen to help out … so maybe it wasn’t a disaster after all.

Around this time I also met with Terry, from venue we were looking at the possibility of using. Again the initial contact email I sent had suggested pre-xmas, but as we now talked and explored the option of post-xmas and how much needed and could be done, it became major-league apparent that the delay was the best decision so far. Terry was amazing. He gave me loads of tips; he’d even done some new research into areas we could look at links with and people/organisations we could approach that might be keen to get on board. I came away with my head buzzing but fully energised. Lots to chew on and lots of leads to follow up, now instead of looking for one venue for one event, I was considering a number of events in the run up to a big finale… like I haven’t got enough to get done already, oh well “in for a penny, in for a pound”.

Initially when the project was first coming together a marketing friend (Laura) had offered to help with the admin minefield, this was an amazing offer and I knew it would help immensely. But it has proved a busy time for her at work so she hasn’t managed to input that much so far, what with work sending her overseas a fair bit… I’ll just have to look at that big list Terry and I drew up of things to look into and source and see how many of the artists have time to contribute that little bit extra … when I get a minute to look at it myself!



Having the commitment of fellow artists and the enthusiasm they have shown, has really excited me about what can be achieved with this project.

Initially I tried to pull a meeting together so we could all discuss what and how it would all work. But this proved quite difficult and although we did have a meeting it was moved quite a few times before a date could get at least half the group together.

This scared me a little as I thought that we really needed to get together to make things happen, agree agendas, timeframes, etc. I soon realised that if it was to succeed I would have to relax about this as everyone – including myself was really busy. I’d have to just take the lead and hope they followed, thankfully everyone has been really supportive and encouraging so far and progress has been to everyone’s liking.

After gathering a team of artists I contacted Philly to ensure she was up for our proposal and gave her an idea of rough timescales. I initially thought we could have it done by xmas. She was really keen on the idea of not just raising money but getting the children involved which was great.

Putting my thinking cap on I also thought if there was synergy with the BIG Issue model, maybe we could get John Bird on board – be our auctioneer for instance. You don’t ask you don’t get, so I started contact with the Big Issue, see if I could make this happen. I also contacted the Bolivian Embassy here in London; see if they would be interested in associating themselves with our project.

We were now in the run up to the Olympics and everyone was either involved in this or on holiday escaping it! Initial investigations into possible venues were proving tricky in the lead up to xmas too, then we heard Philly had had a nasty bike accident, badly injuring her shoulder. She also wasn’t sure the reciprocal nature of the project would work as a lot of the children I had originally met had now moved on, meaning the photos I already had were no use. Philly also had holiday planned in September.

It was all pointing the same way – we had to slow the project down. Plan the auction for the New Year. Maybe then getting the right people and venues in place would be easier.



So, where to begin …

I didn’t start blogging as soon as I had a studio as I hadn’t much to tell, then I didn’t start as I was looking for a “project” to wrap around what I was concentrating on … now my only excuse is I have too little time as I have so much going on….

This blog story really begins back last March when I was visiting Sucre, Bolivia on my year out after finishing my BA.

There I spent 6 or 7 weeks with my husband and many other travellers we had amassed along the way. We were learning more Spanish (a lot sadly I’ve forgotten because I’m not using it since returning home) and enjoying the city.

Bolivia is very poor and going through a lot of political turmoil at present. That said the people are lovely, friendly and not without ambition.

Anyway I digress. The basis of this project … Well there is an English writer (Philomena Winstanley) that I met who bases herself in the city of Sucre, and in her free time (it seems like a full time job from the outside) she runs a magazine (inti-revista.org). Philly produces this magazine with local adults, whom she is teaching all aspects of writing and publishing to.

The magazine itself is bi-lingual and contains stories, drawings and information about and by the local street children. These children normally work to help their families – doing jobs like shoe shining, stall vending, newspaper selling … some even resort to begging.

The aim of the magazine is to earn the children a little cash while educating them at the same time. They volunteer (at weekends) to sell the magazine, and similar to the Big Issue model, they get to keep half the money, whilst the other half goes into running costs of the next edition.

At present there is only enough money to produce the magazine every two months and a relatively small amount are printed. Philly would really love to print more and more often – getting more children involved. The end goal is to encourage the children to learn and value learning (school I believe is not compulsory or freely available as it is here in the UK).

Whilst there in Sucre, a group of us volunteered some time and money to take the children on a trip to a neighbouring village and out of this I came away with lots of photos. I then hatched a plan to return home, paint the children and try and raise some money for them.

This has somewhat evolved…

Rather than just tackle this by myself I put it to a few friends and before I knew it I had 14 fellow artists on board which is fantastic.

In the early stages – back in May this year – I evolved the idea of a reciprocal project. A few artists paint a portrait of a street child and with the help of Philly (the mastermind behind the magazine) we’d get the child in question to paint a portrait of the artist. Then with the two works paired up we’d hold an auction here in the UK and all money raised would go back to help the street children via the magazine.

Simple, right?

Well having never run a group art project before, never mind one spanning two countries (two continents even), involving an auction or raising money for a good cause, I’m a tad apprehensive as well as mega excited.

So, I thought I’d try and share it with you – the highs, the lows and everything in between.

Needless to say all and any advice and input will be greatly received.