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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | October 2007 
Down's Patients Lifted Up by Art in Mexico
 CCTV.com
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| | Their work is so good that some of their paintings and lithographs have travelled as far as the Paul Klee Museum in Switzerland and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado. |
The Mexican School of Down Art provides art education to adults with Down syndrome. It recently opened its doors to show the results of a program that have stunned experts and art fans alike.
Located in the southern part of the capital of Mexico City, the school is part of the John Langdon Down Foundation's 500-student campus.
It all started a little over a decade ago, when the 36-year-old Foundation added art classes to its curriculum, with results that stunned everyone.
Sylvia Escamilla, founding president of Mexican School of Down Art, said, "This program began 36 years ago, because my first child, and that's the powerful reason behind this, was born with Down syndrome 40 years ago, and back then there was nothing, none worried about children with Down syndrome."
The art lessons quickly expanded into a full-time program for about 30 adults between 18 and 54 years old. Most of them have been studying at the foundation since early childhood.
Their work is so good that some of their paintings and lithographs have travelled as far as the Paul Klee Museum in Switzerland and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado.
More than 90 percent of the foundation's students come from poor families. And the school receives funding from government and private donors. It also makes money selling prints, postcards and calendars of the students' work.
However, none of the original artwork is for sale. That's because the school is hoping to exhibit them in a museum when it raises enough money. |
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