As its primary goal, the Burma Border Children‘s Art Project has sought to introduce art into the curriculum of migrant schools for the fun, enjoyment and creative outlet that it offers all students, as well as aiming to develop the artistic skills of potential future artists.
In addition, through the exhibition and sale of work, the project has worked to develop an appreciation that art is a viable income-generating supplement or alternative to working as an unskilled labourer.
In pursuing these goals, the project has paid special attention to encouraging young female artists.
There are an estimated two million Burmese migrant workers throughout Thailand
with as many as 200,000 around the border town of Mae Sot.
Migrant workers receive
on average $2.50 a day working in the fields or the factories
on the Thailand-Burma border.
The children of these migrant workers are educated in migrant schools that
are not officially recognised by, and consequently receive no support from, the Thai
government.
The quality of these schools varies greatly, from internationally funded
and more established schools to single-room bamboo shacks with 50 students of
various ages with one teacher.
While the future of these migrant children is almost invariably destined to be that of an unskilled farm or factory labourer on the Thailand-Burma border, there is a small population of Burmese refugee and migrant adult artists who have established themselves in Mae Sot. These artists sell their work not only to aid workers working along the border but also exhibit and sell internationally. Yet, of the 50 migrant schools and 4,500 students around Mae Sot, in 2004 no school included art as a part of its curriculum. In 2005 the founder of the Burma Border Children's Art Project, Australian author and photographer Timothy Syrota, privately funded a 10-week pilot art program for 40 migrant children. Such was its popularity that classes were soon being run after school and at the following term break, art classes were integrated into the school's formal curriculum. Coordinating the classes were refugee artist Saw Kennedy, who had previously taught art in the refugee camps, and Timothy Syrota.
Quite quickly, more senior Burmese artists volunteered time to teach. The project expanded to nine schools, an exhibition of Burmese migrant children's art was organised, a popular Mae Sot Restaurant was modified to become a permanent hanging space for Burmese migrant children's art, and a successful pilot month-long art summer school program went ahead in 2007.
Throughout these initial stages of development of the Art Project it has been evident that the potential of this project is significant. Exhibitions of work from the project have achieved unprecedented success both in Mae Sot and internationally. One exhibition has been held in Melbourne Australia with 23 out of 42 pieces selling, further work being commissioned, and the gallery indicating that this was the most successful exhibition that they had hosted (Gallery 15@15W, Melbourne). In addition the project has been very well received by students, artists, migrant school headmasters as well as by the Mae Sot ex-pat/NGO community.
The Art Project has received approximately $4,600 since 2005, raised primarily from family and friends. Other funding has been generated through fundraising, an exhibition of the children's art in Melbourne, Australia, and through the setting aside of a small amount ($6.60) from the sale of all pieces of art, of which in excess of 200 have been sold in a 2-year period. Currently, a budget of $58 per month is allocated for the provision of art materials to the schools. The Project coordinator and Burmese art teachers contribute their time and skills on a voluntary basis.