Proyecto Meteoro
An art and design school for homeless youth in Mexico, providing them with skills, opportunities, and a supportive community to help them overcome poverty and rebuild their lives.
Initiator(s)
Claudia Fernández
Description
The project consists in an art and design school structured by workshops for young homeless people which live in extreme poverty. Through the workshops participants create design objects which are sold, raising vital funds to support housing, health and mental care whilst empowering the youths. Through these workshops, children are given the chance to enter into a market, where they show their design objects, made by second hand or recycled materials. The purpose of the project is to rehabilitate and reintroduce these young people into society.
Goals
To promote creativity, as well as stimulate the development of those assisting, creating a better integrated community. The project uses art as a tool to change even the most difficult realities, creating new strategies for social transformation and the healthy development of global communities.
Beneficial outcomes
This project has worked successfully with tangible results and has had a huge impact in the community of young people on the streets of Mexico. Some of the participants went back to their towns, some got jobs, some got over drug addiction but some others are still living within prostitution and on the street.
Location
Mexico, United States
Users
Claudia Fernández, architects, designers, sociologists and psychologists and artists as Manes-Massun, Andrano, Julia and Renata, Ximena Fernandez, Carla Fernandez, Thierry Jeannot, Sebastián Romo, Richard Mozska, Juan Rosales, Xavier Rodriguez, and Valeria Florescano (Mexican young designers who have done well recognized social work) and the youth and children living on the street.
Maintained by
Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, La Colección Jumex Foundation, Pfizer Foundation, Fundación Bilbao Vizcaya-Bancomer, Banorte and the artist Francis Alÿs, who entirely donated the Blue Orange Prize, awarded by the cooperative banks in Germany and then continued to sponsor the project for the next 5 years.
Duration
2003
Category
Scientific
Pedagogical
Politics
Urban Development
Economy
Environment
Social
