Bands to support art for kids in Nepal

Expat bands will gather for a fund-raiser Saturday to help Nepalese women and children learn art and use craft to support themselves.

Bluesnake, Magna Fall, Red Cha Cha, and Samba Mamba will be performing at the “Love Music” event, in aid of Global Arts Therapy, a new charity to be led by English teacher Samantha Thomas.

Thomas, who is based in Suji, Gyeonggi Province, has experience in teaching art to disadvantaged children at programs in her native Iowa and the Czech Republic over the past seven years. But it was a stint volunteering in Nepal last year that prompted her to take the plunge and set up the project.

Going to Nepal had been a dream for Thomas since she was a child, and she decided to combine it with her experience of teaching art to disadvantaged kids, volunteering with Child Workers in Nepal, a children’s rights group.

When she got there, the chaos, large buildings and rolling blackouts of Kathmandu were not quite how she’d imagined Nepal, but as she began her volunteer work, she started to see more of what she had been hoping for.

“People were very warm and friendly as I had expected, and very humble and very kind,” said Thomas. “And although I was teaching out of this one room with no electricity, and we were sitting on mats and had no area to really work, we had an open room ― no easels, no paint palettes, just a giant suitcase full of materials and some art projects.”

She said that the effect that the experience there had on her was more powerful than her previous art projects.

“You connect with children and you see it in their faces and their eyes, that kindness, and you feel like you are doing something, inspiring them to become more,” she said. “And I felt that so deeply with these children and women that were involved in this weeklong seminar that it brought me to tears on several occasions.

“I remember going to the main organization place and seeing all these women and children waiting for me to get there with these supplies, and we would pull out supplies and begin our lesson and every day,” she continued. “There was a giant language barrier, and we were able to overcome that through communication through art.”

It was here that she began work on the prospectus for Global Arts Therapy, an idea that she had first formed while working with the Romani people in the Czech Republic seven years earlier.

Thomas teamed up with six others to set up Global Arts Therapy, which plans to use upcycled goods to furnish arts and ceramics studios in which those helped by the project can make goods. Music lessons and choral projects are also planned.

Thomas said that they wanted to work with the very poorest, and believed that the entrepreneurial aspects of her project could have a positive practical effect on them.

“We feel that the programs that we have created are going to offer some type of sustainability, not just for individual families but for communities ― meaning people will have access to the basic needs, will have access to food, water, shelter and a proper education so that if children want to go to university and such, they will be able to do so.”

The launch of Global Arts Therapy is planned for March 2014. The group has been developing programs and fund-raising activities in the meantime, as well as paperwork such as applying for charitable tax status in the U.S. The group has several artists, therapists and others ready to volunteer once the project begins, but is looking for more volunteers, especially professionals.

Thomas hopes to raise 3 million won ($2,650) at Saturday’s event, with proceeds going toward art materials and musical instruments.

On the sidelines, expat artist Mike Stewart, who runs regular arts lessons and drawing sessions in Seoul, will be drawing members of the audience and performing musicians at the event.

There will also be a raffle, with tickets at 5,000 won for three. Prizes include a Segovia guitar, a La Sardina camera and three rolls of film, drawing lessons, a painting and T-shirts from Babo Shirts.

“Love Music” starts 9 p.m. at Flow in Itaewon. Admission is 10,000 won in advance or 15,000 won at the door. To reserve tickets contact sam.paints1313@gmail.com.

For more information on Global Arts Therapy, visit www.globalartstherapy.org.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)