Wednesday finds me at the Moscow center
of Maria's Children Art Center, hosted by Coordinator, Natasha
Khasanova. FRUA has donated directly to Maria's Children in the past, and we sell posters
and art cards with the art created by the orphans in our FRUA online
store. After a couple of days of high level thinking and even
higher level elbow-rubbing, I planned Wednesday to get outside
the confines of conference and immediate Arbat area. I wanted
to meet people working with orphan children and "non-commercial"
organizations actually doing something here.
I may have gotten more than I bargained
for. The first thing I did wrong was that I dressed in a business
suit and high heels. Somehow I thought that I needed to look
official. I also thought that hiring a taxi to take me to the
address would mean no walking, which wasn't exactly correct. I forgot
about the standing part. The cobblestone streets had me wishing I
were brave enough to go barefoot, and after a few hours of standing
(peering over the art projects tackled so enthusiastically by the
young adult classes) I was stopped from bare feet only by the paint
and glitter and felting materials on the floor.
Out of the cab, I went down a
cobblestone street and through an ornate wrought iron gate, around
the corner and passed between two enormous poplar trees. Ahead lay
big glass windows bursting with joyful color, full of children's
paintings of sky and flowers and animals and buildings and swirling
patterns. The sign was in Russian, of course, but I assumed I'd
arrived. Down the step stone stairs, around the corner and through
rooms overflowing with artist supplies, paints, paper, cloth, found
items, and no one in sight. I pass through the kitchen, where where I tap a FRUA magnet on the refrigerator, and find Natasha near the back of a tiny office filled with a group of desks covered over in books and folders.
The air feels energetic, happy.
For those of you who may not know,
Maria's Children is an art rehabilitation project begun by Maria Yeliseyeva, an artist in
Moscow, who wanted to help orphan children to process the trauma they
had experienced in their young lives. She was familiar with this need
because she and her husband, already parents of five children, adopted five more daughters from Russia's orphanages, who now
range in age from young adult to age five. The goal of Maria's Children has always been to use art as a means
of self expression and a vehicle for self-discovery for those warehoused
in Russia's orphanage system. Through the years, her art
programs have expanded, and she has taken on partners to help fund
the work of offering free, rehabilitative art instruction to orphans
in their Moscow studio, including American, Patch Adams who visits every year. She has also created summer camps for orphans and
disabled orphans, who for the first time had the chance to go to the
ubiquitous children's summer camps favored by all Europe, including
Russia.
During my visit groups of young adults
from Psycho-Neurological Institution (Internat) #11 arrived at
Maria's Children for art classes. These are young adults who have
graduated out of the system, but are not capable of living totally on
their own; they receive a stipend which allows them to live at the
institution, which contracts with Maria's Children to offer them a
creative outlet. “It is the bright spot of their week,” said
Natasha.
Natasha is concerned at the moment,
because their biggest orphanage contracts are up in the air...the
changes in Moscow orphanages
are having an effect, but what it will be for Maria's Children, she does not yet know (more about this in a follow-up blog). The art
instructors are cheerful, talented, caring, working with the youth in one
classroom at collages that marry individually-woven spheres into
brilliantly-colored floral still-lifes. In another classroom, the youth
worked at turning bright fibers into felt, that in turn will
be turned into items like felt purses, and felt eye-glass holders.
“We sell them at fairs and festivals to make money to buy art
supplies,” said Natasha. “And it helps us get word of Maria's
Children out to the people.”
In the kitchen, another volunteer has
been at work turning ingredients into lunch. Near 2:00 pm, she comes
into the art room with a big pot of pasta, a bowl of pale, shredded
cheese and a giant pot of tea. All the students gather and the pasta
is ladles out to all, topped with cheese and handed around.
Mis-matched cups are gathered and tea is poured. Someone runs back to
the kitchen and comes back with a loaf of bread and a jug of milk to
add to the tea. A honey pot appears and within minutes, all the
honey is on the bread and in the tea. The large bag of tiny yellow
apples (many with bruises), that I spotted someone carrying in that
morning, is poured into a bowl, but after discussion, the apples
return to the bag, to be carried back to the institution with the
students. A half hour and the meal is gone, the dishes carried to the
kitchen. “We feed them, or they would not get lunch that day,”
said Natasha.
When at the end of the class sessions,
Natasha asks me how I was getting back to my hotel near the Arbat, I say....cab. “Of course not,” she replied, “I will
take you to the metro.” And off she trots on Moscow
streets, an incredibly brave, walking protest in her blue shirt and
yellow skirt (Ukrainian colors), red flowers in her hair to match her red
shoes. I limp after her. In the crowded Metro, she chats away in
English and I glance around, noting that we are attracting
attention. At the second Arbat stop she guides me off the car, up the
impossibly steep escalator into the sunshine and to the end of the street to
the Arbat, where I know exactly where I am. “Now we are
friends,” we both say, and hug.
As she walks cheerfully away and turns
to wave, I say “Natasha, be careful.”
