April 29, 5PM – 9PM • Seaside Institute, Seaside, FL | Benefiting NDOTO
Heather Haynes: Wall of Courage
On Saturday, April 29, join us from 5PM to 9PM at The Seaside Institute to view WALL OF COURAGE by Canadian artist Heather Haynes, benefiting the non-profit One NDOTO Inc., founded by Shay Bell.
Wall of Courage is a sobering instrument of humanization that captivates the viewer at first glance. The sheer magnitude of this art installation compels a closer look. It depicts portraits of 80 orphaned children from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where wars have raged for more than 20 years with the death toll approaching 6 million people. Haynes’ Wall measures in at a remarkable 480 square feet, and shows relatively few of the people affected by this modern travesty. The children on the Wall are cared for through Haynes’ Worlds Collide Africa philanthropic efforts. “They all have heartbreaking stories as individuals, but collectively they are now in a good, safe place where they are being cared for and educated. Other kids in their community now look at them as the lucky ones,” explains Haynes, who visits the children. “It’s a bit ironic.”
After climbing Kilimanjaro last year, Dr. Hillary Glenn returned from Africa with a mission to bring Wall of Courage to South Walton. Together with Shay Bell, a 10-year resident of Scenic Highway 30A, Glenn sought a gallery to host the exhibition and partnered with Anne Hunter Galleries. Hunter is incubating an artist-in-residence program as part of Haynes’ visit and joined forces with The Seaside Institute, whose mission is to help people create great communities. Bringing art and culture to communities is one of its four cornerstone programming initiatives.
Wall of Courage is exhibiting at Assembly Hall in Seaside on April 27 through 29 from 10AM to 5PM. “Beyond the Wall,” a mini documentary about the project will be shown at 11:30am and 2:30pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of the exhibition. A silent-auction fundraiser for One NDOTO, showcasing the Wall of Courage, will be held on April 29 from 5PM to 9PM.
A welcome reception for the artist will be hosted by Raw & Juicy Life and Anne Hunter Galleries as part of the Seaside First Friday Art Walk on April 7 from 5PM to 7PM. Locals, Shay Bell and Hillary Glenn, will be speaking with Heather Haynes at The Pour in Panama City Beach on April 26th from 5:30PM – 7:30PM and at the Ohana Institute in Rosemary Beach on the morning of April 19. A selection of works from Wall of Courage will be on view at The Seaside Farmer’s Market on April 22 in conjunction with Earth Day. The artwork of Heather Haynes is available for purchase at Anne Hunter Galleries* in Seaside Square from April 7 – May 1 and at these participating art galleries and locations in Walton County:
Adaro Art Gallery – The Hub
The Seaside Institute is located at 138 Smolian Circle above Assembly Hall, on the north side of the Lyceum, and across the green from the Seaside School. For more information contact Janie Henderson at 850-231-2421 or Anne Hunter at 214-641-1048. Updates to additional programming will be posted on this site.
(The Pamoja Tunaweza leadership team is accepting donations of old, working unlocked iPhone 5’s or newer. For works purchased through Anne Hunter Galleries, the artist will receive 50% of proceeds. Gallery proceeds will be donated to The Seaside Institute and to Girlspring, Inc.)
About the Artist:
For three years, artist Heather Haynes worked to create Wall of Courage, a monolithic art installation depicting 80 orphaned Congolese children. This flagship piece of Haynes’ art is the culmination of a 20+ year creative journey that has taken her to the some of the world’s most grim and turbulent places. Faced with a life changing decision to turn a blind eye or look straight into the face of tragedy, the artist found her courage, turned to the sky and pleaded with the universe, “use me!” From that day forward, she used her innate gifts of compassion and artistic ability to create a positive change in the world for some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. Alongside the creation of the art, Haynes has been instrumental in a community empowerment project in Goma that includes a home for orphans, a women’s training center, an agriculture project and a new school. The unique aspect of this community project is that it incorporates safe, easy access and walkability for the Congolese tenants, some of the key design elements of new urbanism.
About One Ndoto:
Shay Bell worked in the new urbanist towns of Scenic Highway 30A for more than 10 years, serving as General Manager of Fish Out of Water and the Private Beach Club at WaterSound for St. Joe Company. In January of 2011, Bell visited the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania for the first time as a volunteer English teacher. In 2012, Shay resigned her position with St. Joe and moved to Tanzania full time. Later that year, she founded One NDOTO Inc. (One Dream), a registered non profit organization to help local and invest in sustainable projects. In December of 2013, along with co-founder, Heather Haynes, Bell opened the Pamoja Tunaweza Boys & Girls Club. Pamoja Tunaweza means “Together We Can.” It’s mission is to empower vulnerable and at risk youth to reach their full potential as productive, self-sustaining and responsible members of the community. The Boys & Girls Club is a collaboration between the original Hard Life Art Club, Pamoja Tunaweza Women’s Center, Worlds Collide and One NDOTO, Inc.
About Worlds Collide Africa:
Worlds Collide Africa began with a song. Heather Haynes traveled to Uganda Africa on a volunteer mission for malaria prevention in 2008 with her Whit, who was 11 years old at the time. Jeff Montgomery, Heather’s husband wrote a song about Heather and Whit, and called it “Worlds Collide”. In 2009, Worlds Collide then became the name of Heather’s first art show based on her trip to Africa. Heather went on to travel to Africa once a year and titled each series of paintings that created, Worlds Collide. As the trips continued, so did the charity work and collaborations with those living in Tanzania and in the DRCongo (DRC). Heather met Shay Bell from One Ndoto in 2013 and they co-founded the Pamoja Tunaweza Boys and Girls Club in Tanzania. More recently One Ndoto and Worlds Collide Africa have joined forces to support projects in the DRC including a home for orphans, a women’s training centre, agriculture project and the building of a school in the city of Goma. Worlds Collide Africa House is a social enterprise guest house in beautiful Moshi Tanzania run by Shay Bell and members of the Pamoja team.
About The Seaside Institute:
The mission of The Seaside Institute is to help people create great communities through four programming initiatives: ENGAGEMENT – A strong voice for community through The Seaside Dialogs, Town Halls, The Future Series. ARTS – bringing arts and culture to community through performances, workshops, and Symposia. EDUCATION – recognizing, teaching, and promoting New Urbanism through The Seaside Prize, tours, workshops, Symposia, travel seminars. INNOVATION – globalizing world-changing strategies through mobility, sustainability, and the Aging With Grace Program.
About Hillary Glenn, DNP, ARNP-BC:
About Anne Hunter Galleries:
Born in Manassas, Virginia, in 1971, Hunter spent her early childhood in Selma, Alabama, before moving to Plano, Texas, where she graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1990. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Alaska in 1997. Hunter moved to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, in 2004, and opened cafes and art galleries in the new urbanist communities of Alys Beach, Watercolor, Rosemary Beach and Seaside. In 2010, she moved part-time to SoHo, New York City, to scout emerging artists while becoming a freelance writer. The story for her musical, MY BARISTA!, was written in 2005. Her fantasy-fiction epic, The Bohemians, is chronicled in three books released in serial episodes beginning in 2016. Her art gallery, Anne Hunter Galleries is located at 25 Central Square in Seaside and is dedicated to preserving the primitive, contemporary and modern art of the new urbanism.
