Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(by Wolfy Becker, with the support of Doug Novell)

The Amazon Basin Institute for Indigenous Arts (the Institute) is a project of the Escuela de Bellas Artes Victory Morey and the Fulbright Commission of Peru.

Background

It all began with the efforts of Cliver Flores Lanza, a professor at the Victor Morey School of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes) in Iquitos, Peru, and Douglass G. Norvell Ph.D., a Fulbright Senior Scholar sent to provide technical assistance.

"The Institute is modeled after Providence, Rhode Island's municipal department of Art, Culture and Tourism", said Dr. Norvell. "Research led us to the Providence program and I hope to replicate both their techniques and successes".

As the project begins, Bellas Artes has a critical need for more space to train artists who come to Iquitos from throughout the Peruvian part of the Amazon Basin, an area the size of California.

The Institute is set up to help Bellas Artes raise money to improve and expand facilities, help students earn money for art supplies and provide faculty with professional development opportunities.

The first major effort of the Institute will be a Visiting Artists program, where artists from the northern industrialized countries will come to Iquitos, travel deep into the rainforest and paint, sculpt or print.

The Region

Iquitos, the trading center of the Peruvian Amazon, is the largest city in the world that is not connected to rest of the world by roads. Water locked, Iquitos has steamships that travel the Amazon, airplanes that fly across the Andes to other Peruvian cities, and a huge fleet of riverboats that travel the tributaries carrying people and cargo.


Art Students at Bellas Artes in Iquitos

The Victor Morey School of Fine Arts in Iquitos trains students to paint, sculpt and print. The school, which was established fifty years ago, moved to a new location in 2002, a historic building donated by the City of Iquitos.


Meet Cynthia

"I want to live in Europe and sell my paintings" says Cynthia, an art student, when asked about her future plans. In pursuit of her goals, Cynthia travels from her home in the rainforest each morning where her family farms to support her studies.

Already an accomplished artist, Cynthia received a Fulbright grant to help establish the institute.

Like other organizations within the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Commission (-link-) welcomes opportunities to encourage world citizens seeking to enrich their lives. Certainly, Cynthia and her fellow student Cliver are on this path.

Meet Cliver

"Cliver is the first one at school every morning," smiled the secretary at Bellas Artes. "He gets up at 4:00 a.m. every morning and catches a boat to Iquitos and then a bus to school."

At the end of the day, Cliver returns home, where he works on crafts for sale to tourists, while his mother works as a seamstress to help pay for his art supplies.

Art supplies are expensive in the rainforest, particularly oil paints that come all the way from England.

During 2007, the Institute will reach out to artists worldwide inviting them to share a rainforest experience while pursing their own vocation or a vocation with folks from Bellas Artes. Art-related tourism is ultimately sustainable. Visitors will bring their own materials and leave no footprint, merely images to carry home.

Funds generated by the Institute will be used to 1. build more classrooms and buy more materials at Bellas Artes, 2. provide scholarships for students from low to moderate income families, and 3. provide for faculty salary supplements, professional development and other activities.

The costs of participating in the Visiting Artists Program for one month would consist of:

1. Airfare to Iquitos (About $1400 from the U.S. or Europe).
2. Room, board and river travel @ $75.00 per day.
3. Miscellaneous expenses another $400.00

Remember, Acosta Travel picks you up at the airport, takes you to one of their hotels or jungle lodges and provides all meals, along with travel to remote rainforest locations. Acosta Travel has two hotels in Iquitos (the Victoria Regia and the Hotel Acosta) and two jungle lodges (the Helconia and the Zungaro Cocha). The Acosta family has been in the hospitality business for sixty years.

Moreover, the School of Bellas Artes provides you with studio space when you are in the city, colleagues to critique your work, and inspiration.

For the more adventurous among us, student tour guides are available (at $10 per day) to travel with you into the rainforest.

or by email here

Formed on December 5, 2006, the Institute will host the first group of visiting artists in January and February of 2008. These artists, coming from North America, Europe, Asia and the other Latin American countries, will spend a few days in Iquitos acclimating to life in the rainforest, then move deeper into the Amazon Basin.

Some will rest and pursue art at "Alberques" (Jungle Lodges) with all the amenities of a Paris hotel. Others will travel along tributaries infrequently visited by outsiders, then enjoy "rough travel" in pursuit of subjects and scenes unspoiled by modern life.

Like many of the students at Bellas Artes, these visitor-adventurers will live and learn at the edge of civilization.