On January 21 and 22, 2019,
about thirty aspiring artists came to express their dreams,
using painting and pigments, in this place made available by
the County Council of Meurthe et Moselle and by the State. They
were able to release their emotions through their drawings and
paintings, to express the vision of their new life, to exorcise
happy and unhappy memories.
Those two days were supported
by the solidarity of a lot of volunteers from Velaine who already
helped by teaching a perfect French to the migrants through
language classes, and who provided material, assistance, and
food.
The Town Hall of Velaine-en-Haye
proposed to exhibit the drawings and paintings in its premises.
During a special day organized by the Association 'Active Citizenship',
on March 16, 2019, the President of the County Council –
a partner of that day – accepted to show this exhibition
in the premises of the Departmental Council, probably at the
end of 2019.
In addition, Jean -François
Clément, an anthropolgist, an art critic, a former teacher
of philosophy, and an Unesco advisor, interpreted these twenty
paintings and drawings by giving them a multidimensional reading.
In front of the enthusiasm of
the young minor migrants during those two days – they
felt they were integrated by a part of the local population
– the responsibles of the unaccompanied minors and asylum
seekers decided to make this experience again at the end of
the scholar year, in June 2019.
The following report (French
version) details the management, the organization, the progress
and the results of this project based on hospitality and integration.