Sunday, April 17, 2011

Paper Turtle: Haiti + New Mexico Partnership

We have drawn many connections between Albuquerque and Haiti in this blog.  One of our own Bread members, Sharon Barefoot, is currently working as a volunteer nurse for the Catholic Medical Mission Board.  And our Offering of Letters workshop in March featured local speakers Adolphe Pierre-Louis of the local dance group Racine Kreyol and Chuck McCune from the Prizm Foundation.


We would like to highlight a third local connection, an arts-related enterprise formed by Laura Bruzzeze of Albuquerque (a member of my parish Aquinas Newman Center) and  Aly Abraham of Port-au-Prince.  The two artists have never met in person, and yet they have managed to create a great partnership. Their business, named Paper Turtle, offers beautiful paper-mache sculptures. 

All the art pieces designed by Laura and Aly are hand-made in Haiti with recycled materials and are intended for sale in the US gift market.  Since this is a start-up business, Paper Turtle is raising funds to create initial inventory and capital to ship products from Port-au-Prince to Albuquerque through Kickstarter, a funding mechanism for creative projects around the world.

"We invite you to participate with a contribution in any amount ($2 - $2,000). In exchange for your donation, you will receive one of our beautiful sculptures," said Laura. 

Click here to contribute. You will be taken to the project page created for Paper Turtle in the Kickstarter Web site.


Learn about the origins of the project in this entertaining video:

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