STAYING HOME DURING THE PANDEMIC
Philanthropists Alfredo Harp Helú and Maria Isabel Grañén Create a Robust Program to Support Folk Artists in Mexico
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by
Eric Chávez Santiago
Director, Andares del Arte Popular & Coordinator, Arte Popular FAHHO
One of the largest non-profit foundations in Mexico is the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca (FAHHO), devoted to advancing the quality of Mexican life through grants for education, culture, sports, health, small-scale enterprise and environmental stewardship. Only one month after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Mexico, FAHHO suspended all its activities for the public, as did all institutions affiliated with it. Among them was Andares del Arte Popular, a project created in 2017 by FAHHO philanthropists Alfredo Harp Helú and Maria Isabel Grañén to help artisans from Oaxaca to commercialize their traditional handcrafted items. Since then Andares has supported families throughout eight regions of Oaxaca by commissioning their work and offering design suggestions to enhance marketability.
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Outside View of Andares
In March, 2020 the Federal Government of Mexico announced the “stay home” campaign to help reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus. This resulted in the closing of most businesses and tourist activities in Oaxaca -- a state heavily dependent upon the tourist industry. To offset this major economic loss for folk artists, the team at Andares, FAHHO’s folk art gallery, created a program to support these artists by buying their artwork in collaboration with Museo Textil de Oaxaca. With a generous budget of roughly $250,000 USD, pieces were commissioned directly from the artesanos at full price. By July of 2020, with the slow but constant evolution of the pandemic in Mexico, Andares received additional funding equivalent of $300,000 USD, to expand the program to other states in Mexico as well.
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Map of Mexico showing the 16 states that have benefited from the support program
HOW THE PROJECT UNFOLDED
This was a monumental undertaking for the Andares team, which had to establish conversations with over 320 workshops and review thousands of artisans’ photos to arrive at their final selection of pieces. The major criteria for participation in the program were: (1) artisans had to work from their home workshops; (2) their pieces had to be created in 2020; and, (3) for artists who did not already have inventory, a system of purchase orders had to be arranged. A total of up to $40,000 pesos (approximately $2,000 USD) in purchases was made from each workshop; the amount varied depending on the type of craft and the price, as well as availability from each workshop.
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Andares Team Members (left to right): Diego Morales Toledo, Rubí Lavariega Aquino, Eric Chávez Santiago, Fabiola Velasco Santiago, Rafael Marín Martínez
Here is how our small but capable team of 10 staff members – each one contributing a variety of skill sets – carried out this ambitious project. We broke down the work into five stages:
First stage: José Montaño (graphic design), Joana Santiago (exporting), Aldo Luis, Esmeralda Prieto and Fabiola Santiago (all specializing in sales) established the initial contact with the participating families -- via phone calls, email, and WhatsApp -- to explain the bases of the program and to invite them to send images of their artwork in catalogs and photographs;
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Images of artwork provided by artesanos who wished to participate
Second stage: Diego Morales (design) and I selected the items to purchase, judging quality by reviewing the images;
Third stage: Rafael Marín (accounting), Rubí Lavariega (inventory), Diego Morales and I gathered all the paperwork and legal documentation to create invoices and purchase orders. This included phone calls to guide artists who did not have bank accounts, legal documents or prior experience to create invoices;
Fourth stage: After review of final orders and invoices by Rafael Marín, Diego Morales and me, payments were made to the artists; and
Fifth stage: All team members helped to coordinate packing, shipping and receipt of pieces, following which the process of inventorying began. After unpacking and reviewing pieces, SKUs had to be created for each item.
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These two photos convey the administrative and logistical challenges posed by the support program: (Above) Display at Andares before the pandemic, and (Below) another during the program housing many more pieces
Fifteen months after the beginning of the program, roughly 25,000 items from 16 states in Mexico had been purchased. All artists have been paid in full and, remarkably, only a small percentage of pieces suffered damage during transportation.
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Examples of the process of receiving and organizing purchased pieces
Today the challenge is to showcase the great diversity of inventory and to promote sales of this remarkable and diverse collection.
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SAMPLING INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS |
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José García at work
One of the participating workshops was that of José García and family from their ceramic studio Manos Que Ven (Hands that See) in San Antonino Castillo Velasco. During this difficult time Andares was able to purchase artwork from a number of family members to support their studio, as well as to donate -- in collaboration with the Escuela Nacional de Cerámica – a smoke-free kiln. During the pandemic, the García family has received support from our initiative and others, including FOFA, which has enabled them to continue their traditional ceramic work in spite of COVID. Pepe and Sara, Jose’s children, have been repeated participants and winners in ceramics in FOFA’s contests for young folk artists since 2008.
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(Translation of Spanish text in image above) The García Mendoza family is recognized for the productivity and high quality of their ceramic artwork. Maestro José García, who has long collaborated with the Andares del Arte Popular team, has enabled them to share his experience working in clay. When we asked him why his workshop is named “Manos Que Ven” (Hands that See) he replied:
"I am blind, disabled from glaucoma that deprived me of sight. I see absolutely nothing, but my other senses are enhanced, especially touch and hearing, and I work as if I see with my hands. It is a beautiful story. I was born on August 10, 1947, my father was a day laborer and my mother took care of the housework and the family. During my childhood when rain ran through the dirt, it created chewy mud that I mixed up and from which I made different figures that I saw in the fields, bulls, donkeys, and sheep. That is how I began my life in ceramics."
Clay pieces made in Manos Que Ven are fired in a smoke-free kiln that has many advantages: consumption of firewood is reduced, it is more friendly to the environment and permits better control of the firing of pieces, while also reducing master craftsmen’s exposure to smoke and heat during firing. This kiln was designed by the National School of Ceramics and donated to the García family by the Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca Foundation.
Another workshop supported was that of master woodcarver Avelino Pérez Muñoz from La Unión Tejalapam, Oaxaca who specializes in decoratively painted wood-carved animals and human figures. The artesano families in this relatively remote community are rarely considered in public programs. However, due to FAHHO’s collaboration with FOFA that provided his contact information, we were able to include this talented woodcarver/painter in our purchase project.
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Victor Vásquez of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec -- in the Sierra Mixe district within the region of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca – participated with his distinctive life-size ceramic sculptures. |
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The Andares program wanted to support young artists as well, such as the group belonging to Mujeres tejedoras de YooKuaa (Female Weavers of YooKuaa) from San Juan Colorado. This collective of eight women was invited to participate with their textiles.
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Female Weavers of YooKuaa
In spite of this initiative by our private institution, the challenge is still huge for the large number of artisans belonging to the active workforce in Mexico. The virus is now in a new third wave in Mexico, and the slow vaccination process makes the pandemic seem endless. Despite these caveats, the FAHHO/Andares program has provided substantial support for many workshops that needed the most help.
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We at FOFA salute Eric and his devoted team for their continued dedication to Oaxaca’s artesanos at this most challenging time. Through their creativity, ingenuity and caring spirit they have enabled a vast number of families to keep working productively, to maintain hope, and to put food on the table, while remaining safe in their homes.
For more information about the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helu Oaxaca, visit https://fahho.mx
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!
OAXACA WEEK IN BROOKLYN, SEPTEMBER 20-26
FOFA is thrilled to announce that This is Latin America (TILA), the company run by our Mexican friends Hector García and Miguel Corona dedicated to promoting the folk art of Latin America, is organizing “OAXACA WEEK” in Brooklyn in late September. They have invited three highly accomplished FOFA award-winning artists to come sell their art and give demonstrations: Fernando Peguero, ceramicist, and Efraín Fuentes and Silvia Gómez, woodcarver and decorative painter.
Stay tuned for more information, including a special FOFA reception and the opportunity to purchase their work prior to its public sale in Brooklyn!
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Please consider supporting FOFA's ongoing efforts to enable talented young Oaxacan folk artists to achieve their dreams and maintain sustainable livelihoods.
For a comprehensive look at FOFA's programs, visit our website at: www.fofa.us
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Thank you!
www.fofa.us 718-859-1515 info@fofa.us
275 Central Park West, #1-C New York, New York 10024
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