Working Title: Shukar Lulugi (Beautiful Flower)



Shukar Lulugi came from a desire of Roma women refugees to make art and socialise with other newcomer refugee women. The Roma women had worked previously on "Loki Gili - Song of Sorrow, Song of Hope", in which Roma participants worked with artists from Red Tree artists' collective to paint, take photographs, make music and write poetry. Paul St. Clair provided a liaison with Roma Community Centre and Sojourn House.

The goal of Shukar Lulugi is to give newcomer refugee women an opportunity to meet other women, discover a new community, a new city, and new experiences. We provide a welcoming, warm and safe environment in which to share new experiences.

Red Tree artists - collective will work with Roma Community Centre, Sojourn House, CultureLink and refugee women in Toronto.

Along with community co-ordinators Hajni Hamori and Gyongyi Hamori (both from the earlier arts project "Loki Gili", working with Roma refugees), we invite twelve women of all ages, from culturally diverse backgrounds, to explore painting, photography, multimedia books, storytelling, poetry and performance. The project runs from May to September 2007, with a total of 34 workshops.

There will be an exhibition and reading of the poetry in September.

We propose that the storytelling/poetry workshops take place at Sojourn House, and that the painting workshops take place at CultureLink.

Artists:
Margo Charlton: storytelling, poetry, performance
(12 workshops)
Amelia Jimenez, Lynn Hutchinson: painting, multimedia books (13 workshops)
John Pinel Donoghue: photography (7 workshops)
Florence Gibson: project advisor (2 community workshops)

Margo is a theatre animator who has worked with communities in Winnipeg and Toronto. She has used popular theatre techniques to create community development projects with a wide variety of groups, and has worked as a freelance theatre director.

Amelia is an artist and educator who has held studio projects on painting and sculpture for elementary and high school students, and was the project co-ordinator of the "Visiones Project - An Installation on Identity" - a 6-weeks project in partnership with MacDonald High School and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. She was an artist in the Loki Gili project, working with refugee Roma women on murals and a multimedia quilt.

John also worked with Loki Gili, conducting photography workshops with four Roma youth. With his teaching and encouragement, the youth produced a powerful and moving documentation of their community. His work has been
exhibited across Canada, and was used in the video, "The Internal Refugees of Guatemala", produced for Project Balam.

Lynn was artistic director of Loki Gili and worked with Amelia and a group of Roma women on two murals. She is a founding member of Red Tree artists' collective, working with diverse communities - in particular, newcomers to
Canada - to develop arts projects. In 2006 she worked on the Solar Oven Project, a mural with community arts group Muraleando based in Havana.

Florence is an award-winning playwright whose play "Home Is My Road" dealt with the struggle of Roma in Europe, and Canadian adoption of Roma children from orphanages in Romania.

Shukar Lulugi Artistic Director: Lynn Hutchinson
lynn_hutchinson@logicbbs.org/416.537.8426
Liaison: Paul St. Clair p_stclair@yahoo.com/
416.588.6288 Ext. 216