Haiti earthquake: A cultural agony in a nation where art is life
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At Port-au-Prince’s main art museum, it looked as if a cruel giant had taken bites out of the walls and ceiling of the cavernous exhibition hall.
Large wooden panels where paintings once hung had toppled. A bronze bust of DeWitt Peters, a California water colorist widely credited with bringing international attention to Haitian art in the 1940s, lay on the ground.
Joseph Gaspard, a member of the board of directors of the College Saint Pierre museum, was inspecting the site Saturday for the first time since the Jan. 12 earthquake, crunching broken glass as he walked through the debris. He struggled not to cry.
‘Haitian art is what makes the international eye see us,’ he said. ‘Every Haitian is an artist. Art, it is us, it’s what we are. Even our children are artists.’
Continue reading ‘A cultural agony in a nation where art is life.’
-- Tracy Wilkinson in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
More photos: Haiti art museum damage
