In preparation for UN Day 2019, ICS students have been creatively preparing for the temporary art installation, Walking for Peace, The Shoe Project. Gandhi once said, “If you want real peace in the world, start with the children”. And so that is what we did, we started with the children. Thank you to Ms. Mary Romano, our art teacher, for this idea and for leading the students through this work.
Many of our ICS families have walked far to get to a place of peace. In honor of the individual journey each family has taken to get to the places where they are now, the Art Studio chose shoes as the symbolic representation of these journeys.
In the literal act of painting and designing sprang forth the oral journey stories that spoke of bravery and sorrow. Here are some examples:
5th grade- “My parents had to leave the Congo because of the war. My dad died and we came here with my mom”.
4th grade- “I was in my mom’s tummy when she left central Africa because of the war. She traveled to Cameroon, then to America. I chose these little shoes because they remind me of me being little inside of her tummy.
3rd grade- “My grandmother died in Somalia in the war, so we came to America”.
2nd grade- “My parents are from Nepal, but we had to come here because it was not safe”.
The world journey is also a metaphor for life, the journey of life. The shoes in this temporary art exhibit may be small, but they represent big, courageous lives of people who walked far for peace.
very clear and good article easy to understand. Thank you