24 Jan Beauty for Freedom’s Project Ghana Art Exhibition on February 2, 2018
Beauty for Freedom and The Flat NYC Present The “Project Ghana” Exhibition
VIP Preview
February 2nd, 2018 (8-10pm at The Flat NYC – 23 W 24th St, New York, NY 10010)
A Beauty for Freedom Exhibition in Partnership with JR’s Inside Out Project and Challenging Heights
Supporting Young Survivors of Labor Trafficking and At-Risk Youth
Feb 2nd 2018, 8-10pm, New York based anti-trafficking organization Beauty for Freedom (BFF) in partnership with Flatiron Event Space The Flat NYC present the Project Ghana Exhibition VIP Preview featuring 15 renowned artists in collaboration with the young survivors and at-risk youth of Challenging Heights (CH), a Ghanaian anti-trafficking organization, and JR’s Inside Out Project. This 15-piece, mixed-media exhibition will feature art collaborations using the CH youth’s Inside Out Project photography re-interpreted and re-imagined by some today’s most influential and progressive artists, and will be curated by Monica Watkins, Daria Borisova, Jerry Chu and Anne Verhallen. The goal of the exhibit is to empower the young survivors of trafficking as artists and creatives while raising funds for the rescue, recovery, education and reintegration of more survivors in Ghana.
Exhibiting Artists Include: Nick Walker, Erica Simone, Ydania Lopez, Mark Wagner, Laura, Anne Brooks, Jose
Castillo, Alfredo Martinez, Michael Raeuschl, Zephy, Travis McCann, Jerry Chu, and Sophie Bartsich.
*100% of the proceeds of the artwork sold will benefit the rescue and recovery programming for CH
and BFF’s travel-abroad arts therapy programming.
To sustain and grow their empowerment initiatives through the arts, Beauty for Freedom partnered with Chal- lenging Heights teaching an art therapy initiative featuring photography, watercolor painting and mural workshops to over 300 youth at the CH Friends International Academy and 58 young survivors of labor trafficking currently housed in the recovery program at the Challenging Heights Hovde House. Beauty for Freedom brought in over
150 lbs of art supplies and professional DSLR camera equipment the youth used to create original artwork in the workshop series from June 24-July 7th, 2017.
The workshops culminated in a community art exhibition supporting the creative process of the youth. The exhibition included Inside Out Project photography walls, an empowerment art mural featuring hopes and dreams of the youth, and their original paintings for textile design. All of the youth’s artwork was then trans- ported to the US and will be featured in fashion design collaborations, group exhibits with professional art- ists and a photo book which will be additional fundraisers produced by Beauty for Freedom for Challenging Heights’ local programming in Ghana
“Deploying arts and art therapy is a big part of our work at Challenging Heights. Remember there is an issue of self-esteem with survivors, so this work with Beauty for Freedom helps these children to have improved self-esteem…to hope and to dream that anything is possible and that they can do it! Challenging Heights is an organization that I created to solve the issues I faced in my childhood. A childhood where I was sold into slavery at the age of 6 years old and finally escaping at the age of 13, working up to 17 hours per day facing unspeakable abuses and hard labor. I wish that I had someone to care for me, to rescue me to save me. I found the opportunity to do so with these survivors with Challenging Heights and partnerships with organi- zations like Beauty for Freedom can help us reach the goals of eradicating child slavery in Ghana.”
– James Kofi Annan | President of Challenging Heights and Survivor of Child Slavery
Beauty for Freedom & Inside Out Project Press Article
Beauty for Freedom’s Project Ghana Documentary Film
About Beauty for Freedom
Beauty for Freedom has been fierce in its mission to engage the industries of Beauty and Fashion as powerful allies in the fight to end human trafficking through public campaigns, workshops, and fundraising events.
Fall 2016, Beauty for Freedom produced a series of music, photography, mural, fashion and painting work- shops in India meant to promote self-esteem and self-expression for survivors of sex-trafficking and at-risk youth and continued their empowerment arts therapy work Summer 2017 in Ghana with survivors of labor trafficking through #ProjectGhana.
About Challenging Heights
Challenging Heights is a local, survivor-led organization working to end child trafficking, reduce child slavery and promote children’s rights in Ghana. Founded in 2005 by James Kofi Annan, a survivor of child traffick- ing, Challenging Heights rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrated children who were trafficked into the fish- ing industry on Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world. Since 2005, Challenging Heights has rescued more than 500 children from modern slavery, prevented hundreds more from being trafficked and been at the forefront of anti-trafficking efforts in Ghana. challengingheights.org
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