The Global Canvas: Projeto Igarai

The Global Canvas Project a.k.a. Projecto Igarai is an innovative trans-cultural arts collaboration linking youth from Brazil and Chicago through the internet and actual arts projects.

Artist/educators, Jon D. Neumann and Isac Enriquez, from Chicago’s South Side are creating what they refer to as a conceptual arts space intended to link youth through creative actions that allow for a free-exchange of ideas and cultural expression.

This summer Jon and Isac are very excited to be artists-in-residence in Mococa, at Fazenda Ambiental Forteleza, an historic coffee farm, and to be partnering with Café Igarai, a cooperative of skilled craftswomen and Grupo Tumm to forge a positive social force linking two continents through the arts.

During the months of July and August, the artists will be conducting workshops that explore the arts of Hip Hop with local teens as a strategy to design and paint a mural in Mococa, and as a catalyst for the teens to share their interests in Hip Hop with teens in Chicago, engaging in creative dialogue about their lives, and advancing their knowledge of the world.

The artists will share their passions about Chicago-style Hip Hop artists, and they will teach the teens graphic arts, calligraphy, character design, use of color and composition, various graffiti and painting techniques and break dancing.

The artists will be working with the teens to blog their ideas and to give  Projecto Igarai updates, so stay tuned!