Peter Claesson is beside himself.
“You should have seen the faces of these men,” he says enthusiastically while talking over the phone about his experiences in La Línea, the Spanish city on the Gibraltar border of Spain. “They were so happy and proud!”
Together with internationally renowned street artist Victor Ash, eight homeless people have reformed a drab wall into an open-air painting in a deprived part of the city.
Instead of gray concrete, there are now silhouettes of wild animals jumping off the bright white background. All day, they had been working on it, Claesson explains. Again and again, passers-by stopped and admired their work. During their breaks, they had breakfast and pizza, and at the end of the day, these homeless men felt they had achieved something big.
Big certainly describes most of the works of art created with the help of Art for All. Whole facades of houses and even whole street blocks have been revamped by Claesson. He started the project with his wife Sharon, in Spain, where the 53-year-old lives and runs a travel agency.
Besides Spain, Art for All has left its mark in Jordan and Honduras, specifically in cities and areas that are poor and deprived. The project collaborates with renowned artists such as Nelson Román and Nena Sánchez.
It all began 20 years ago in Ecuador, when Claesson and his wife lived in the capital, Quito. They both worked for the U.N. but thought their skills were underutilized. When they heard about children who were living with their parents in prison, they decided to organize outdoor trips for the children.
“But at the end, the children had to return to their sad prison world,” Claesson recalls. That’s how the idea was born to paint the walls, together with the inmates, to bring color and life to their gray surroundings.
First it was only done inside the prison, but eventually it spread to the outside world — with the prisoners. The impact was overwhelming, and Claesson decided to take the idea to other parts of the world.
Claesson has a special vision for La Línea. The first piece of art is complete, and he is getting immersed in fundraising so the homeless can decorate more walls and plant trees. And at the end, they plan to open their own café for visitors who come to admire the art.
“We will do it!” Claesson says. “I can envision it before me. And when I see it, then it will happen.”
Learn more
For more information about Art for All, visit ww.artforallintheworld.org or email Adrian Ade in Hamburg at adeadrian (at) hotmail (dot) com.
Translated by from German into English by Janet Schilling. Courtesy of INSP News Service www.INSP.ngo / Hinz&Kunzt