Others Are Us to Present "Making Friends with Flowers" at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Sunday, January 25
New York, NY, January 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- In celebration of the Lunar New Year, Others Are Us (OAU) is proud to present “Making Friends With Flowers” at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Sunday, January 25, from 12 to 4pm. This family art program is part of a day-long indoor event focused on the cultures of China, Vietnam and Korea. For the first time, children in New York City will exchange drawings of flowers with children celebrating the New Year at the South China Botanical Garden in Guongzhou.
Others Are Us will facilitate the creation of art by children using plants and flowers that have special meaning in China. Drawing from real flowers, children will assemble bouquets that carry a special message of friendship and goodwill to children participating in a parallel program at the South China Botanical Garden. Young artists will also have the opportunity to pen a greeting to accompany their flowers in both English and Mandarin. The bouquets will be exchanged via technology.
Plans are in the works to launch “Making Friends With Flowers” as an annual event in June 2009, bringing visitors at botanic gardens around the world together to extend bouquets of friendship to others. According to Annette Swierzbinski, OAU founder and executive director, “Making Friends With Flowers” establishes an immediate connection between cultures by highlighting our shared love of flowers and the friendly and universally understood gesture of sending them to others.”
Others Are Us is a six year old nonprofit organization that engages children and youth around the world in artistic endeavors that promote peace through communication. The mission of Others Are Us and the programs it has developed emerged as a response to the culture of fear and negative profiling of others that arose following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent issue of globalization. OAU was conceived as a long-term strategy for establishing a foundation for preventing future conflicts by fostering in children the ability to recognize intercultural similarities and to understand the origin and nature of cultural differences. This enables them to work cooperatively to address shared issues.
OAU’s programs use art as language. Through exchanges of theme-based drawings, young people are able to “speak” directly to one another from their personal experience, sharing what life is like for them in their country and culture. The medium of art enables children to record and communicate their thoughts, feelings and information in a form that can be understood by any other child anywhere in the world without the need for adult intervention.
For additional information about “Making Friends With Flowers” or Others Are Us, please contact Annette Swierzbinski or visit OAU’s website, www.OthersAreUs.org.
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Others Are Us will facilitate the creation of art by children using plants and flowers that have special meaning in China. Drawing from real flowers, children will assemble bouquets that carry a special message of friendship and goodwill to children participating in a parallel program at the South China Botanical Garden. Young artists will also have the opportunity to pen a greeting to accompany their flowers in both English and Mandarin. The bouquets will be exchanged via technology.
Plans are in the works to launch “Making Friends With Flowers” as an annual event in June 2009, bringing visitors at botanic gardens around the world together to extend bouquets of friendship to others. According to Annette Swierzbinski, OAU founder and executive director, “Making Friends With Flowers” establishes an immediate connection between cultures by highlighting our shared love of flowers and the friendly and universally understood gesture of sending them to others.”
Others Are Us is a six year old nonprofit organization that engages children and youth around the world in artistic endeavors that promote peace through communication. The mission of Others Are Us and the programs it has developed emerged as a response to the culture of fear and negative profiling of others that arose following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent issue of globalization. OAU was conceived as a long-term strategy for establishing a foundation for preventing future conflicts by fostering in children the ability to recognize intercultural similarities and to understand the origin and nature of cultural differences. This enables them to work cooperatively to address shared issues.
OAU’s programs use art as language. Through exchanges of theme-based drawings, young people are able to “speak” directly to one another from their personal experience, sharing what life is like for them in their country and culture. The medium of art enables children to record and communicate their thoughts, feelings and information in a form that can be understood by any other child anywhere in the world without the need for adult intervention.
For additional information about “Making Friends With Flowers” or Others Are Us, please contact Annette Swierzbinski or visit OAU’s website, www.OthersAreUs.org.
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Contact
Others Are Us
Annette Swierzbinski
212-595-6814
www.OthersAreUs.org
Annette Swierzbinski
212-595-6814
www.OthersAreUs.org
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