Eyes and faces are looking on at the happenings in Georgetown as the ‘Inside Out Witness Project’ put up several posters this past week ahead of its massive roll out today.
The project, aimed at ending violence against women and children, has among its key objectives the use of the arts—in this instance photography—to draw the attention of adults and spark a conversation about the effects of violence in society upon children.
The Witness Project is the brainchild of the Margaret Clemons Foundation. Speaking with Stabroek News as volunteers pasted posters outside the National Library yesterday, Clemons said the project also seeks to address gender based and child directed violence.
The project involved the participation of 15 Guyanese children who launched into their communities and took pictures of other children and adults after asking how they looked when they felt scared, happy and sad.
The photographic portraits were transformed into large posters and are being put up around Georgetown at various locations such as the US Embassy, Canadian High Commission building, Help and Shelter, Stabroek Market square and the seawalls, among other places.
It is hoped that the project will reach over 200,000 in Georgetown alone and more through local and international media.
Project Manager Alysia Christiani said yesterday that she is contented with the many lives the project has already changed, adding that even though it was a very challenging task it was a success. “We are not trying to make a political statement or anything like that. The statement we are trying to make is that children are watching adults; so we are asking that they [the adults] do better.”
Inside Out, a collaboration between the artist JR and the TED Prize, is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work.
Guyana is said to be the largest participant in the global art project and is the only country that is using children to spread the message, Clemons said.
Volunteers will be putting up posters at the seawall today from 10 am.
