MAINE: Art connects dioceses of Maine and Haiti
Episcopal News Service. September 11, 2008 [091108-02]
Lisa B. Hamilton
As Hurricane Ike roared across Haiti, Susan Meade looked up from the sales table of an art show held in the parish hall of St. Mary the Virgin in Falmouth, Maine -- about 2000 miles away from Haiti, where the art was created. "It was miraculous," Meade said. "There was a long line snaking all the way around the room -- and everyone was holding a painting. Not only did they want to buy the art, they all wanted to know something about Haiti."
By the end of the day, over $9,000 was raised to offset Haiti's appalling poverty -- worsened in the past month by the ravages of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and tropical storms Fay and Hanna. "It feels so hopeless to be so far away," Meade said. "Fortunately, we sent funds to Gonaives to pay for hot lunches and uniforms for the children and salaries for the teachers back in August. We know that Hanna destroyed the bridge between Gonaives and Port au Prince, and since it's part of the only road to Gonaives, we're trying to figure out how to get food and clothing there. We still don't know if a school we're helping build or the Episcopal church there was damaged, but we know that a lot of roofs are gone, and that clothing and food have been destroyed by mud."
Meade has an intimate understanding of the enormous challenges of daily life in Haiti. For three years in the 1970s her husband, Fraizer, was a member of the U.S. Embassy staff in Port au Prince and for a short while, she worked for the Sisters of St. Margaret a Boston-based Episcopal order whose ministries include running two schools and a home for the elderly in Haiti. "Working with the sisters really opened my heart," she said. Meade found the Caribbean nation "heart-wrenchingly beautiful" and its "gorgeously colorful art" an inspiration because it was created in the nation that is generally considered the western hemisphere's poorest.
When the Meades moved to Maine in 1994, "practically everyone who walked into the house raved abut the art we had brought back from Haiti," said Meade. "And I thought, 'Aha! There's a market here. Maybe it's because Maine and Haiti are both such gorgeous places, but in completely different ways."
Since 1998, the Meades have traveled to Haiti every year the political climate has allowed, in order to purchase about 150 pieces of art and crafts, such as silk scarves and small sculptures, from Haitian artists. According to Meade, they pay the artists fair market prices and then mark up the art by 100 percent for sale at parishes around the Diocese of Maine, which has been in a diocesan partnership with the Diocese of Haiti since 2002. At last count, 14 parishes in Maine are partnering with churches in Haiti, according to the Diocese of Maine's website. These partnerships begin with mutual prayer, and frequently expand to include visits and monetary support.
Meade estimates that the art sales have generated about $100,000 that has been used for medical care, and to build, repair and fund schools and students. Diocesan focus is frequently on schools, Meade said, because, "as Bishop [Jean Zache] Duracin [of Haiti] so often says, 'Education is the only hope for Haitians.'"