1. Question:
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Does everyone there have AIDS?
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Answer:
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No, but every family has at least one person who is HIV positive.
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2. Question:
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Why can’t you tell us who is sick?
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Answer:
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Because people with AIDS are treated differently due to prejudice
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and fear, and their privacy must be respected.
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3. Question:
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Has anyone in the paintings died?
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Answer:
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Yes, the Healing Community has lost five women, who were parents, and three children, over an eight year period. This figure is not totally accurate, but close. It is based on my knowledge of the families, but often, there are circumstances where we do not always find out if someone has died. The founder of Blueberry Cove died of cancer and old age. When you consider that approximately 150 family members have come to the three camps during one summer, the number of people who have died is low.
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4. Question:
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Why did you decide to make these paintings?
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Answer:
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I wanted to do something visually to tell others about the Healing
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Community. In the three years since the completion of the series, it has generated $24,000 in donations from various support groups including the AIDS Benefit Committee of New Jersey and TROY Corporation.
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5. Question:
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How did you make these paintings?
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Answer:
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I started with photographs and matched them up with the words of the song. Then I drew the outline using a slide projector. When the drawing was complete, I would sometimes add free hand elements tothe picture and then I began the painting process. It took me 8 months to finish the series. I used permanent ink, felt-tip pens, acrylic paint and fabric paint to complete the final paintings. The areas that look like watercolor are actually very watered down acrylic paint.
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6. Question:
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What should we do to be safe?
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Answer:
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These children are infected because of drug use by one or both of their parents. You should be very cautious if you find a needle on your way to or from school. The sharing of needles is the major concern. Tell your parents or a teacher if you find needles on the way to school, and be sure not to pick them up.
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Presentation of 36 Paintings: Portraits of the Healing Community
Through a slide presentation accompanied by music from Air Supply entitled “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” the students are introduced to the Healing Community. The 36 images are portraits of participants of the Healing Community, an HIV/AIDS summer camp program begun at Blueberry Cove Camp in Tenants Harbor, Maine in 1992. Over eight years, the program evolved and, eventually, two additional locations at YMCA camps in Rhode Island and New Jersey broadened the program.
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Blueberry Cove began in 1949 as an integrated children’s summer camp by the sea located in the small Maine village of Tenants Harbor. It was founded by Henry and Bess Haskell, who were committed to a creative and interactive environment that fostered progressive educational ideas of the period. The Healing Community was built upon the Haskell’s model and has been successfully introduced to inner city families so that they may also enjoy the camping experience and the outdoors. The program has a strong focus on Art, Music, Drama, and Dance as parts of the daily activities.
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The 36 paintings portray children, adults, staff and volunteers who have participated in the Healing Community at all three locations. When the program began, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA indicated that 90% of children born HIV positive would not live beyond age 10. Each year these figures have dropped. Today, in 2000, AIDS has gone from classification as a terminal disease to a chronic disease. With the advancement of drug therapy, and AZT being administered to pregnant women who are HIV positive, the birth of HIV affected newborns has dropped considerably. Some estimates suggest an 8%, as compared to 90% chance of HIV passage from infected mothers to their newborns in 1992.
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The background on AIDS is relevant to the questions that children might ask initially when seeing the portraits, however, statistics and the evolution of HIV/AIDS is not the intent of the curriculum. The goal is to make students aware of HIV/AIDS as a real condition that affects children their own age. It helps them to address some of their fears and misconceptions about HIV, and makes it clear that the majority of children born with the disease were infected through adults who shared needles.
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This component is particularly relevant in the New Haven Public Schools, as questions of drug use and needles come up in classroom discussions regularly. The intent of the discussion in the first session is to allow for the verbalization of concern for the people portrayed in the portraits. Since there is no initial indication of illness in the persons depicted, the subject of confidentiality is appropriately introduced here.
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Why confidentiality? Students are told that living with HIV is difficult because of fear, but that the portraits attempt to present the people as normal, healthy, and capable of having a good time. The subject of ethnicity is brought up and it’s stated that 50% of the participants in the Healing Community are African-American and 20% are Hispanic, again, recognizing the similarities between the two communities. An explanation is given. Drug use and shared needles are the primary cause of the HIV virus in the children of these communities.
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Discussion is directed toward encouraging the students to discuss their emotional responses to the paintings and how the paintings were made.