"ART AGAINST RACISM, INTOLERANCE, and TERRORISM"

A selection of the drawings, paintings, essays and poems were on view at
United Nations Headquarters in New York from November, 2001 through January
2002 and in Durban, South Africa at the World Conference Against Racism from 31
August to 7 September, 2001.

The pledge and the art competition were organized by the United Nations
Department of Public Information in cooperation with the Youth Art
Connection/ Boys and Girls Clubs of Atlanta in the United States, who
worked with over 30 countries in their global youth outreach programme,
International Paint Pals. UN Information Centres worldwide also
participated, along with the Survivors Art Foundation, Totem Rhythms,
Cheney University in the United States and several non-governmental
organizations.

PHOTO CAPTIONS

(Caption for photo of Nelson Mandela)

A special nationwide competition was held throughout South Africa,
organized by the UN Information Centre, Pretoria. Former South African
President Nelson Mandela handed over the first prize—a bicycle—to
Crista Schutz from Glencoe, Kwazulu-Natal, at his home in Houghton, South
Africa on 9 July, 2001. Mandela asked Crista to explain the painting and to
"tell all the
children I love them".

(caption for photo of Stomp Out banner)

In Atlanta, USA, the Youth Art Connection hosted an event at the Martin
Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in April, 2001 to "Stomp Out Racism".
Hundreds of children placed their feet in buckets of coloured paint and
stepped on two huge canvas banner, "stomping out" the ugly words "racism,
hatred, bigotry, prejudice, intolerance". The banner was displayed in Durban
and in New York as part of the art exhibition.

(photo caption for silk banners)

Survivors Art Foundation, with students from Cheney University—the oldest
historically black university in the United States—also created several
silk paintings for the Durban Conference. Four students from Cheney
University and three students from Atlanta came to Durban to help with the
creation of a "Tree of Pledges against Racism" at the exhibit site. Students
for Red Rock Job Corps in Pennsylvania also created silk banners for the
exhibit.

(Photo caption for Pleadge Against Racism banner)

Since its launch in December 2000, more than a million people have signed
the Pledge Against Racism, which was sent around the world via the
Internet, through the UN Information Centres, and through NGOs. The UNICs
from India and Bangladesh sent in more than 60,000 pledges.

Photo captions for Mrs. Annan with "Gift of Limbs" children from Sierra
Leone.)

Mrs. Nane Annan, wife of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, participated in a
special “closing” event with children from Sierra Leone and East Harlem New
York at the exhibition venue in UN Headquarters in January to honor the Gift
of Limbs project.

Mrs. Annan signs her children's book, "The United Nations: Come Along with
Me" which she presented to five-year old Maimanou from Sierra Leone at the
closing event for the Art Against Racism exhibition in New York.

Mrs. Annan presents her book to --------------------, on of the art students
from East Harlem who created collages of the "children without limbs" to
raise awareness about the atrocities which took place in war-torn Sierra
Leone.

The Gift of Limbs Project (background information)
As part if the Art Against Racism and Intolerance exhibit, was this unique
project created by children from war-torn Sierra Leone and students from the
Genesis Program of Boys and Girls Harbor in East Harlem, New York.
The project started with the East Harlem students learning about the
recent tragedy in Sierra Leone in which thousands of victims lost their
limbs, many of them children. In response, they created of a series of
beautiful collages of the “children without limbs”.
The East Harlem students then met a group of seven child refugees from
Sierra Leone who were seeking political asylum in America and were receiving
treatment and prosthetic limbs at Staten Island Hospital. The African
children and the Harlem students formed a special relationship and worked on
a collaborative quilt project in the summer of 2001. Both the quilt and the
collages were displayed at the UN exhibit.
To raise awareness and to raise funds to purchase prosthetic limbs for
the Sierra Leone war victims, the “Gift of Limbs Benefit Auction” was held in
New York in October, 2001, as a creative collaboration with Rush
Philanthropic Arts Foundation, and donations by established artists, museums
and galleries.
Mrs. Nane Annan, wife of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, took an interest
in the "Gift of Limbs" project; she participated in a special closing event
at the exhibition venue in UN Headquarters in January, 2002 with children
from Sierra Leone and East Harlem, New York.