Dear CAPE teacher: 9-29-99

This is an invitation to participate in a international exchange process between young people 12 to 16 years of age in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil, and young people 12 to 16 years of age in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. Students in both cities will reflect upon the artwork of local artists from their own and each other’s cities as a way of stimulating international understanding of diverse cultures.

Students will have opportunities to study the artists, to reflect upon their work in writing, and to create their own artworks in response. Students in both cities will study the Chicago installation America’s Courtyard by Brazilian artists Denise Milan and Ary Rodrigo Perez. Lincoln Park High School students, working with Chicagoan Deanna Shoss, have already studied this installation and created their own artistic responses to this work. The students’ enthusiastic response to this experience laid the groundwork for this international exchange.

"At once arena, chapel, playground, and theater", America’s Courtyard is a complex piece that references philosophical, political, cultural, and aesthetic issues. Culminating events for the exchange could include performances and readings in the installation. There are other incarnations of the piece in Brazil. There are possibilities for interactive, simultaneous performances united through video linkages between the two countries.

For more information about this extraordinary installation, located near the Chicago Planetarium, see the photographs and the Michael Bresson essay on the City of Chicago website:

The coordinating organization in Chicago will be the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education. The coordinating organization in Salvador will be Via Magia. Both organizations are dedicated to finding the authentic connections between the study of the arts and larger issues of young people’s personal, intellectual, and academic development. This effort is being encouraged by the Ministry of Education of Brazil. The connections between these organizations was facilitated by Ronne Hartfield, former Director of Education for the Art Institute of Chicago, and currently conducting research at Harvard University on the sacral functions of art across cultures.

There will be an exhibition of the results of the exchange in the beginning of the year 2000 at the Ministry of Education in Brasilia, to which representatives of all the states of Brazil will be invited.

The students in Salvador will focus on Bahian artist Mestre Didi, whose artwork is inspired by his shared African and European cultural background.

The students in Chicago will focus on a group of Chicago painters of diverse cultural backgrounds. These artists have all worked together on many major Chicago installations, and have all worked closely with young people to create public art that addresses important issues of cultural history, identity, and youth and community development. Students will study the history of public art in Chicago, the United States, and the Americas, as well as the formal strategies and compelling content themes of these particular painters.

The Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education will create a website to showcase the artists from both countries, as well as the students’ written and artistic responses to their work.

Cordially,

Arnold Aprill

Executive Director

Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education

Brazil/Chicago Exchange Contacts:

Chicago Teachers:

North Side College Preparatory High School: /5501 N. Kedzie Chicago, Illinois 60625

773-534-3954 FAX: 773-534-3964

Murray Language Academy –

Mary Ziegler: mziegler@murray.cps.k12.il.us

Michele Clark Middle School-

Tim Jones: whitaker@meqsinet.net

Claire Whitaker: whitaker@meqsinet.net

Lincoln Park High School: Virginia Eichinger: 773-534-8166

Organizers:

Arnold Aprill: aaprill@capeweb.org

4056. FAX: 312-781-4604

c/o Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education 11^th floor / Marshall Field’s/ 111 N. State Street/ Chicago, Illinios 60602

Deanna Shoss

dshoss@ci.chi.il.us

773-686-3555

fax: 773-686-6221

Rosa Iavelberg

Art Coordinator- Ministry of Education- Brazil

Fax: 55 11 2114160

Phone: 55 11 870-9006

Ruy Cezar and Adrianna Riberia

Instituto Cultural Casa Via Magia

Rua Henriqueta – Salvador- Bahia

CEP 40.220-180

Telephone: 55 71 331-21-98 or 247-00-68

Fax: 55 71 245 3089

Viamagia@bahianet.com.br

Ronne Hartfield

Denise Milan- artist (Brazil)

FAX: 011-55-11-251-4520

Phone: 011-55-11-284-0504

Ary Rodrigo Perez :

aryperez@uol.com.br

Mestre Didi – artist (Brazil)

Bernard Williams – artist (Chicago)

4444 W. Haddon

Chicago, Illinois 60651

773-782-8373