Art District

A few days ago, some of my friends and I went to the "art district" in the city. It definitely had a very different vibe to it compared to the rest of the city. First of all, many of the galleries have been built in old government buildings or factories that were used during a certain "revolution" at the end of the 60's and during the early 70's. (Think Badger Ammunition Plant in Baraboo if they decided to redo it and turn it into an art district!)



Along with works from renowned artists all over the world, different forms of art like drawings, paintings, sculptures, open areas with seemingly random collections of junk, animated videos, and interactive art, there was also a......Lebron James gallery. It was pretty lame. It was basically a basketball court and contained some of his different shoes and videos of him playing. Does he even know that he has an ART GALLERY in his name in ASIA!? The American girls I was with didn't even know who he is...

Aside from the amazing hot ham and cheese sandwich I had for lunch at one of the cafes there, by far my most memorable part of the day was walking into what seemed to be a store that was selling postcards, notebooks, etc. When I rounded the corner there turned out to be a pretty small gallery with some different paintings hanging on the walls. But what caught my attention was a wall with just a few framed collections of photographs.

Contained in each of the 10 picture frames were six 3x5 photographs of impoverished families in a small village in East Asia. I can't even begin to describe to you the living conditions that these pictures showed. I don't think I saw a single bed, bathroom, any kind of living area, etc. Only very small, gutted, concrete structures with mud for a roof. Here's some of what I wrote in my journal a couple hours later:

"But what stood out to me from the day was one small wall with just 3x5 pictures in frames of poor children/families in East Asia along with a sentence or two on their story and who they were. The buildings they were living in looked more like abandoned cement cubicles than homes. Most children were orphans or living with one parent who had either a mental or physical disability and couldn't work, and whose other parent had left long ago. Many of the families were being 'supported' by the government, probably living on less than a dollar a day.

My heart just broke for these people and I turned away in the middle of the room with tears welling up in my eyes and just being frustrated because I know that you could fill up thousands of art galleries with similar pictures from all over the world, yet I don't know what I can practically do for them. I'm not rich and I can't help much by just going to them.

There HAS TO be an easier way to allow people to see these needs and then DO SOMETHING to meet them."

A few days removed from writing this, I realize that in the moment, I may have exaggerated my inability to help. I CAN help. Relative to the rest of the world, I AM rich and I have the Best News they could ever hear. But in the moment, seeing how great their need was, I was completely overwhelmed and frustrated by all the needs in the world and my inability to even make a dent no matter how hard I try.

There are EXCELLENT organizations like World Vision and countless others that directly meet the needs of people like this. You can choose to buy a goat for a family, or clean water, or medical supplies for people in refugee camps - you KNOW where your money is going. (www.worldvision.org)

But I've still gotta believe that more can be done - better ways of allowing people to see the needs in the world, ways of allowing people to contribute to causes like these and see with their own eyes how THEIR time and money was able to save lives. Because when you get even a glimpse into the disparity of these kinds of conditions, it hardly seems like enough to just open the checkbook and cut a check to some organization and hope that the money makes it there and has some sort of impact.

I'll be brainstorming.

-CK