Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” And such is the impetus of every artist: change.
From the standpoint of art, the work of every artist is to share with the world their insights and perspectives on life. From Paleolithic cave paintings to the work of modern-day artists, the arc of human expression has been to inform, illustrate, breakthrough, evoke, and provoke. And change happens — one artist at a time, one heart and mind at a time.
Art can create social impact through individual endeavors to community-wide and international projects. One such project is not only creating transformation through artist exhibitions, it’s also giving budding artists opportunities to learn, create, and grow. Founded by Cleveland native Caira Lee, the Ghifted School of Art based in Ghana and the US has a 3-part approach:
The Donor’s Choice Program allows donors to purchase gifts directly from a student’s wish list, which can be anything from paying school fees to needed supplies and tools to housing needs.
Provide training, classes, and certificate programs for artists to help them in their personal lives and in today’s art world.
Ghifted Gallery of Fine African Art: A world-class gallery featuring the most significant work of students, which provides them access to a broader arts community, a chance to advertise their skills, and to gain potential private clients.
As their website states, “This adult-learning program builds bridges between philanthropists and extremely talented, impoverished artists in Ghana to afford them education while promoting their contemporary and traditional art.”
Quote:
“This is powerful. And authentic and [a] culturally relevant approach to creative empowerment. Truly transformational!”
Peter Jeffy, Project Director, McNair Scholars Program at Kent State University, Youngstown, Ohio
It seems that Caira’s entire life has led up to this international project. She comes from a family of artists: her grandfather was a painter; her brother, by age nine, had mastered playing the guitar upside down, something he learned from their father, a renowned bassist.
At age thirteen, Caira began traveling internationally to writing workshops, performing poetry, and coaching young artists at events like Poetry Out Loud in Washington, DC, and Brave New Voices in California. In college, Caira gave a TEDx Talk that was featured in the Huffington Post and For Harriet. She ended up in Ghana studying playwriting under Prof. Samuel Benagr at the University of Ghana. When invited to teach reading and writing at Ashesi University in Ghana, she felt so at home that she stayed.
With Ghifted, Caira chose a huge dream that would allow her to create generational wealth without the trauma of dispassionate labor. She says, “I believe people deeply desire to connect to one another, to help less fortunate people when they can, to be the force for good in another’s life. Sometimes when they have the money, they just don’t know the best way to help. Ghifted provides that solution by making it very clear how the donor is helping their artist of choice. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a person across the ocean who you can forever say you had an instrumental role in elevating their quality of life?”
In high school, Caira was voted “Most Likely to Change the World” — and she is clearly on her way as she seeks to enable, uplift, engage, promote, and transform people’s lives whether they’re a donor, an art lover, or a student. Caira wants to “alleviate the unnecessary suffering of talented artists in Ghana while creating a life-changing bond between two people who would otherwise never have known each other.”
In today’s world of technology that has managed to create even greater distance between people, Caira is using art and artists to bring people, ideas, talent, and hearts together. If you’d like to learn more, please visit Ghifted School’s website, as well as their Facebook page: Ghifted School for the Arts and on Instagram @ghifted.school. ●
