• Submitted by: lena campos
• Society
• 05 / 18 / 2012

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Paintings on canvas, created by Cuban children with Down syndrome, are exhibited in a gallery in California, United States, as part of an expositive cycle begun in March in that country. Ten works are part of the exhibition of those winners apprentices, members of the project With Love and Hope, founded a decade ago in this western province, told Prensa Latina Jesus Carrete, director of that experimental workshop.

He explained the series, that began its journey by a California college and then traveled to a theater in the same state, is now exposed in a place for people with disabilities.

This is our first experience in that country and we are excited by the result, said the plastic artist and teacher of the group, who started as printmaking and is now experimenting with other forms of expression.

Parallel to the exhibition in California, the Havana Museum of Fine Arts also houses a collection of paintings, done by one of the members of the group.

It was a challenge to teach the secret of printmaking and inked counterfoil to people with Down syndrome, but we managed to discover their talent and raise the motivation of that particular equipment, explained Carrete.

More than 50 group exhibitions and 11 personal were organized by the project until now to showcase their work in galleries and museums, both Cubans and foreigners, especially in Spain, Mexico and Germany.

Among the most important awards conferred to "With Love and Hope" highlights the first prize of the Contest Sensitive Art, held in the Mexican city of Monterrey in 2008. The most rewarding of the effort, he added, is that we raise the self esteem of students and their chances of social integration.

I do not see the workshop as a job, for me is a pleasure, an extraordinary joy, he ensured.

Although some do not consider them true artists, the art teacher considers art what his 24 disciples create, and a reflection of a different sensibility and virgin look.

We intend that this program provides the basis for their inclusion in working life. Now they are greeted with admiration, they have won recognition from an audience that applauds at each show, he stated.