Just landing in Papua New Guinea, artist Kendal Henry kicks off the American Arts Incubator Program! As he hits the ground running, we wanted to give a sneak peek to the upcoming events of his exchange.
This month, we celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s day on March 8th. The timing is perfect for Kendal to explore collaborative, community artworks for women’s empowerment and gender justice. The 2015 Papua New Guinea Women’s Forum from March 9th – 11th sets the pace as Kendal teams up with the US Embassy of Port Moresby to facilitate conversations with female community leaders, empowerment advocates, business owners, public servants, and men interested in women’s empowerment. Accompanied by Economic Officer Susan May and Gender Issues Assistant Agatha Pio, Kendal will discuss ways to use art as a tool for social change, and ways for local artists to build successful business models.
For the second half of the exchange, Kendal will lead a one-week workshop at the University of Papua New Guinea. Starting March 14th, this will be a time full of teaching digital and new media art techniques, meeting with community members, co-examining local women’s issues with community members, and collaborative project development for social engagement with local artists. On March 20th Kendal and the workshop participants will present their ideas for public artworks at a public review meeting, and four projects by local artists will be selected to receive small grants to create their artworks. Stay tuned for more blog posts as the community artworks are prototyped and unveiled on March 28th! In the meantime, we can’t wait to see images and video and read more from his blog. Be sure to check back soon for more!
