"Looking back into the distant past as far as our awareness reaches, we find that water was the object of human veneration, a veneration amounting to religious worship. Every great culture felt water to be connected with the loftiest gods. It was considered holy, an element not to be tampered with in its purity." Theodor Schwenk

The Global Rivers Art Exchange is an ongoing cultural exchange program. Itbegan with the intention to bridge the cultural gaps between people indifferent countries by focusing their attention on something that is importantto all, our local water ways. The exchange is designed to inspire and to educate people of all ages.

UntitledLarisa Samarina, adult Volgograd, Russia

Industry Is Not Humane Randolph S. Crider, age 17 Cleveland, Ohio USA

• About 10 years ago the city fathers of Cleveland decided to make the river an entertainment zone. Randall's painting shows the types of activities that go on along the banks of the Cuyahoga he shows people arguing, fighting, drinking and smoking hardly aware of the rivers beauty. Below the water are those who love the river going to battle for the sake of its future.

Mutant Fish

Kevin Melicant, age 17 Cleveland Ohio

• I live in Cleveland and cross the river every day to go to school.Before this project I never thought much about the river. Now I watch the water every day. When the river gets murky it makes me feel sick.

Spirit of the Harpeth

Luke Beata, age 18 Harpeth River, Tennessee USA • This work portrays the beauty

of the river through idealistic eyes. Signs of man's negative impact upon the Harpeth have been ignored. The fantasy-like hills, swirling sunset, and seemingly boundless waters symbolize the untamed purity of nature and suggest that a similar quality lies between the true heart of humanity. The woman depicted parallels the wild beauty around her, ultimately implying the importance of protecting and maintaining the environment which is so much a part of us.

Okumfumanachi

Kwami Bakoji Fornyer, adult, Ghana, West Africa • My painting shows a

Ghanian folk hero from the 1600's (Okumfumanachi) who through the manifestation of a miracle, brought the Ashanti people together in peaceful unity which has lasted to this day. Also depicted is the gold mining factory, which is polluting the rivers of Ghana, and endangering the wildlife of our country.

The Weeping God

Adu Kumi Ernest, age 17 Ghana, West Africa

• The future looks dark, not dark by night but by pollution of our rivers and our lakes. I could imagine how sad the up and coming generation will be. All the trees are cut down, rivers polluted by animal waste and machine and boat smoke.

Let all unite and fight against the pollution.

Untitled

Yaw Kankam Frimpong, age 14 Ghana, West Africa • This painting shows how

some areas are polluted. The forest has been destroyed by bush fire. The cutting down of trees causes deforestation while the river has been polluted by toxic waste from factories and rubbish from our homes.

Swimmer

Katya Samoilenko, age 15 Volgograd, Russia

• Water....fresh and clean water, clear feeling man, nature, and under water world are a united whole. We must love everything that surrounds us.

Untitled

Svetta Kolesova, age 15 Volgograd, Russia • The waste of our

industry is killing us. We know this, but it isdestroying us physically and spiritually.

Still Life

Sergei Krylov, adult Volgograd, Russia

• This is a simple half a glass of water. no one thinks about a half a glass of water but someday this half a glass could save your life

Above and BelowBernice Davidson, adult, Martin Methodist college, Pulaski, TN, USA

-- Invitation to the Global Rivers Art Exchange Project --My name is Bernice Davidson. I am a professor of Art at Martin Methodist College in

Pulaski, Tennessee, USA. My colleagues and I have been working on a global art exchange aimed at utilizing art to alert and inform people all over the world about the precious nature of our rivers and waterways. We have works of art to share from talented artists on three continents, and we seek to expand the collection to include artwork from all parts of the planet, in order to make this show available to institutions around the globe. Please read the invitation below, and contact me if you wish to participate. Background:

In 1996, I had a job teaching art in an inner city magnet school for music and art in Cleveland, Ohio. These kids were talented and some were angry. I decided to bond them with an art project that would get their attention. The school was in close proximity to the Cuyahoga River -- one of the only rivers in the world that turns back on itself, making an almost complete loop. There is a 500 year-old Burr Oak tree near its shore named the Signal Tree, which was planted by the Iroquois Indians to let everyone know that their canoes had to be portaged 8 miles from that spot. This tree marked a safe passage area where no one was attacked.

The Cuyahoga River was also a place on the Underground Railroad, where hidden slaves passed on barges concealed under hay bales and other goods, to find their freedom where the river meets Lake Erie. In later years, the river burned twice, due to pollutants from Cleveland’s iron industry. At the time of our project it was still heavily polluted. These high school students were so captivated by the stories of the river that it became their muse; they fell in love with their river and made incredible art. Toward the end of the project, they started wondering about the stories behind other rivers of the world. They even asked me to take their river paintings to Africa, so as to warn the people not to pollute their rivers.

Two years later, with grants from the Ohio Arts Council and private funding, I was able to take their paintings to Ghana, Africa. Later that same year, the project also went to Volgograd, Russia to study the Volga River. This was the beginning of The Global Rivers Art Exchange Project. For more information about this first stage of the Project, go to our website, at: http://members.tripod.com/globalrivers/index.html.

As I travel around, looking at the world’s rivers, I notice that many people have no idea how to protect their local waterways, which are so often choked with trash and human waste. Given the many immediate threats to clean water resources, and related environmental problems around the world, as well as a heightened current interest in solving them, it is appropriate to expand this Project now. It is timely and fitting to ask ourselves, “Can a river be healed through art?”

Here Is The Idea: This Stage of The Global Rivers Art Exchange will travel to neighborhoods in countries where

rivers are distressed, to serve as a way to raise peoples’ awareness and to prompt action to counter this trend. We have more than 50 beautiful river paintings by artists from three continents. Could artists’ collective attention to water resources become a unifying factor in joining hands to save our planet? I invite you to join me in a project that has certain material requirements, but no limits on imagination.

Pick a river or other body of water near you. Learn about it, and use its image as your muse. Create a painting on un-stretched canvas, sturdy paper, or any material that can be rolled -- 2’ by 3.5’ -- with a 5” border at the top and bottom, for scroll holders to be inserted. The idea is for these paintings to hang vertically, as scrolls; and enabling them to be mailed easily from venue to venue.

This invitation goes out to one and all. There will be two levels of work created; one, a juried show of professional-quality art, which will be exhibited at museums, colleges, and universities. The other level will be non-juried and include young people. This second grouping of works will be shown at schools and community centers. Each entry should have a statement about the piece, and the river being represented, in order to keep the educational element strong. You will also be asked to write a paragraph about yourself and your own creative history. In turn, you will be notified as to each and every venue where your work will appear.

Let artists join together, doing what we can do to save the world’s rivers. For more information about The Global Rivers Art Exchange Project, please contact me, at: davidson@usit.net.

Thank you,

Bernice Davidson Associate ProfessorMartin Methodist College 433 West Madison Street Pulaski, Tennessee, USA 38478-2799 931-829-2043 (home)