Changing The Present: Expression Through the Arts
OYE believes that artistic expression has the power to build confidence, inspire hope and transform lives. Art is used as a tool for building self-esteem and raising awareness of important community issues. It also builds skills, provides an outlet for personal and creative expression and encourages self-reflection and growth. Our classes focus on several areas: general arts and crafts, photography, documentary video, mural painting and theater.
Art, Photography, and Video Program
After-school art classes are taught at the COPPROME center and at the Proniño "La Montaña" home to preschool and elementary school age children, an extracurricular activity that the children do not receive in school. Through these classes, children are given the opportunity to explore new materials and think creatively. Classes include drawing, painting, coloring, collage, paper-making, sculpture, puppet-making, silk-screening, and mask-making.
Photography is a creative form of image making accessible to children of all ages. During the first six months of OYE, as a pilot program, children aged five to sixteen were taught how to use simple camera equipment to creatively portray and reflect about their lives and community. Starting with only five point and shoot cameras, the photography students have taken beautiful and perceptive black and white portraits of their friends, family and neighbors. With these, the children have built the stories behind their photographs, which help them understand the world they live in, and integrate them into a larger community. Photographs taken by the children in OYE's workshops were compiled into a national and international travelling photography exhibit titled "Fotos de mi Pueblo."
In collaboration with a local video production company, the Cruz Bros. Inc., OYE teaches digital documentary video workshops to youth in the centers as well as with the OYE Youth Group. Youth are taught the basics of planning, writing, and directing for video, as well as general use of the camera equipment. They then go out on their own to make short films about their lives, either using real documentary scenes or re-enactment style footage of their reality and life conditions. The results are powerful and explicit insights into their lives, and give these young people a tool to express themselves and have their voices heard. The short films are screened at the local House of Art and Culture.
Mural Program
In addition, OYE runs a mural program. In 2005, OYE staff and the children planned and completed a 10-foot by 25-foot mural about children’s right to education which was located Los Laureles, a day care center for children from low-income neighborhoods. OYE also completed a 50-foot by 15-foot mural at the main COPPROME center about Honduran culture. OYE’s third mural project was executed at the public gymnasium with adolescents from El Progreso who are in social risk. It was a graffiti project entitled “Mi mente en Spray” (My mind through graffiti) on a 40-foot square wall in the center of town.
In a culture and living situation where no one asks their opinion, OYE youth work together to choose a subject and execute the mural. The content of the mural is discussed and used as a learning opportunity. The children also learn decision-making skills through the creation of a work of art that carries a positive message and reinforces the importance of education.
Theater Program
OYE’s Theater Program began in December 2005 and is a program of after-school classes at the COPPROME center. Children are divided into two classes: the Chicas Estrellas (Star Girls) who are in high school, and the Tigers and Lions, who are in elementary school. The Chicas Estrellas write and perform in small plays and sketches, and are learning dance as well as acting techniques. The Tigers and Lions learn puppet-making, and have a small puppet theater where they stage improvised performances and short plays. Theater improves self-confidence and offers a great opportunity for self-expression.
