FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2005

Contact: Anne Rocheleau of Spaces For Peace, Founding and Creative Director

401-831-3388

WHO: Students at “the Met School”

WHAT: Raising funds to build a “Spaces For Peace” artspace and creating a culture of peace in Rhode Island

WHERE: Public Street campus of The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in Providence

WHEN: Fundraising Campaign December 2004 to April 2005

WHY: "We have to stop killing ourselves to solve our problems. The essence of nonviolence is love" Dorothy Dr. Cotton

An outdoor sculptural space will be built at The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center in the early summer of 2005. Until then, a small student team of budding artists at “The Met,” as it is fondly known, are engaged in fund raising for it, research and design, building architectural models, and producing art. As an outdoor multi-use site, everyone can enjoy it as a community space. Anne Rocheleau, a skilled artist in a variety of media and art educator directing the project will work with four students who have selected to work as interns with her in order to advance their career goals. “The Met” is an innovative high school where all students learn through “LTI” programs, Learning Through Internship.

A wonderful aspect of the sculpture design project is that most of The Met school student body will be brought into the discussion of non-violence and generating the images, poetry and quotes for the sculpture. The 50,000 dollars that the student's are trying to raise will go towards creating this long lasting reminder that life is a series of choices and that there are options outside of disregard, domination, retaliation and prejudice, which so degrade humanity. We can choose human connection. We can evoke compassion, share the knowledge and inspire respect. Your contribution will make it possible for these students to achieve this goal. It's time to re-write the models we have handed to our youth. Checks can be sent to The Met School, c/o the Business Office, 325 Public Street, Providence, RI 02905. Please write in Spaces For Peace on the bottom left memo line of your check.

According to Met Sophomore Cynthia Gallegos, fall semester public relations coordinator for the team, “The Met” is a place where a student can start a school career afresh. It is a place where nobody cares about your past accomplishments in science or your previous English scores; the goal of the school is to know and follow your passion. Most of the people that go to the Met really admire the risks the school has taken and what it has done for the school system as a whole. Central to the Met program, students have internships allowing them to explore their specific interests and to learn what they really want. This also changes the person and their attitude about school.”

Ms. Gallegos, who is very concerned about the ease with which people resort to violence, goes on to say, “The Met is a place where violence and prejudice is not allowed. Where really, no child is left behind. For example, I’ve heard a story where a teenager was close to being thrown in jail. Now that student is in medical school. There was a senior last year that said ’In the Met you can either do nothing or do anything.’ The Met is more than a high school; it’s a high school that creates futures and dreams.”

Knowing that readers would be interested to learn more about Met Students, Ms. Gallegos, a junior and a painter with strong interests in interior design and architecture, interviewed two classmates with the Spaces For Peace internship. “I asked them why they chose the Met School. Shawn Andrews, a junior and devoted comic book artist at the Met responded, “I liked that I had the freedom to do what I really wanted to do.” Isreal Santana, also a junior, passionate about art and industrial design, replied, “Because it was my last chance to prove to people that I wasn’t incompetent.” She also asked them why they choose this internship specifically. Shawn, also a painter, “Because it really related to me. I would like, to expand my horizons, to learn different styles of art, and, since this internship is about peace, it will make me a better citizen.”

The Met students feel strongly that this sculptural project and the improvement of the cultural landscape is critically important because of what they call the “turbulent times in which we live.” Shawn Andrews emphasized the point that, “Even the youngest of our children are exposed to the culture of violence that so much of our mainstream media promotes.”

Gallegos acknowledges, “Sadly, this generation is all about violence and drugs due to their cultures, especially in high schools.” However, she is profoundly hopeful when she says, “But now, we have the chance to change that through a public work of art.” This model will incorporate passages that expand our understanding of nonviolence and racism. The interns will conduct research, use their creative imagination in exploring design options, and they will generate powerful images to incorporate into the sculpture. Ms. Gallegos goes on to say, “The beautiful thing about this sculpture is that it promotes peace, a subject that many high schools don’t integrate into the curriculum. “ Shawn Andrews, summarizes it well, “The purpose of this project is to use art as a catalyst to inspire peace through the vehicle of art. To support it would be the right thing.”

Making visible a myriad of ways toward peace and deracialization, the mission of Spaces For Peace is to expand the social dialogue and democratize public space by building small open-structure artspaces with communities and artists in parks, plazas and on campuses in the U.S. and eventually the world. www.spacesforpeace.org

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