Arte Acción Copán Ruinas is closing its doors
By Carin Steen, director
October 26, 2010

By the end of 2010, the cultural association Arte Acción Copán Ruinas (formerly Copán Pinta) will cease to exist. After almost twelve years of art workshops, events, exhibitions and lots of fun in and around Copán Ruinas, we’re going to call it quits. Some people already knew, for others it might come as a bit of a shock. If you want to know exactly why we’ll close shop, what our plans for the future are and what we’ll do with our supplies, please read on!

Why?

There’s not just one reason why we decided to quit, it’s a combination of different factors, some professional, others personal.

For starters, there is, as you undoubtedly know, the financial crisis. It has hit us hard (especially in combination with the political situation here in Honduras) and as usual, cultural initiatives are the first to suffer. The tide might turn, but after all these years we’re a bit tired of the struggle and not knowing whether we’ll be able to pay the rent by the end of each month.

Then there’s the red tape. In order to continue our organization we’d either have to renew our legal contract with our partners in Tegucigalpa (of Arte Acción, who, by the way, will continue as usual) or start operating independently, both options implying a very slow, tedious and expensive process for which we don’t have funding nor time.

On a more personal note, my job has changed a lot over the last few years. It is great to have a team around me and not being in charge of every little thing myself anymore, but in the last few years I’ve become more and more a director and much less an artist and teacher. Although I still like my job very much, I do wish I could spend more time on that other part of me that is also very important. And as much as I’ll miss doing community work, I also feel I have something to contribute as an artist.

As for our achievements, Arte Acción Copán Ruinas has never been bigger and better! But we feel we have somehow reached our limits. To grow, which would be natural, would mean to become more professional in ways we do not necessarily aspire. We’ve always enjoyed our rather informal (though professional) work style and the close relationship with our target group and sponsors. We fear that getting bigger means more administrative responsibilities, more bureaucracy and less personal satisfaction and that’s just not our ambition.

We’ve conducted thousands of workshops over the years and we could continue doing so till the end of our days. There’ll always be lessons to be taught and kids willing to learn in a fun way. But why not stop here and now, now that we receive more appreciation from the community than ever. We’ve done some groundbreaking, fun projects; we’ve obtained overall acknowledgement for informal teaching methods and we have awakened in our students a curiosity and eagerness to express themselves. What more could we ask for? It’s time for others to stand up and do what needs to be done.

What’s next?

So what will happen in 2011? First of all, there’s still lots of work to be done before the end of the year. The school year is almost over which means that currently we are wrapping up our projects. Once done, we’ll be busy with the evaluations, reports and organizing two major events, a sport day in Sesesmil I (November 12) and the Maya Cultural Festival in La Pintada (December 10). Then we’ll clean up our office and donate all our supplies and equipment to those institutions that need them most (schools, libraries, other cultural organizations, our partners in Tegucigalpa etc.). Some of it we’ll keep because, yes, some projects will continue…

Elsa Morales and Marlen Vásquez will continue teaching about Maya culture in ten communities. The Saturday art workshop will probably continue too, likely in collaboration with the public library. Elsa and Marlen will also be involved in our “pet” school in the village of Santa Cruz where they’ll coordinate extracurricular activities. Besides teaching, Elsa and Marlen also run a lucrative sowing business together.
As a complementary project to the teaching about Maya culture, with our friend and archaeologist Argi Diez we’ll coordinate a archaeology project for teens in the community of San Rafael.
Manuel Enrique (Kike) Murcia and Dionicio Hernández are set on continuing training the baseball and soccer team. Kike is planning on opening his own horseback riding school and sport centre in Copán. Dionicio Hernández has just been offered a job in the Archaeological Park of Copán.
Moisés Mancía will return to his agricultural practices and our dynamic instructor Londin Velásquez is going to the capital to study.

As for myself, I’ve plenty of plans, although none definite. I’ll be busy enough the first few months writing up a very thorough evaluation of almost twelve years of Arte Acción Copán Ruinas. Then I’ll stay around until at least July to coordinate the continuing activities and to focus on my own artistic projects. I hope I’ll be able to make a living painting, designing and writing. One idea is to use my experience developing hands-on methodologies on a variety of topics to sell complete teaching methods to NGOs in the Central American region. After July I’ll see, but my mind is sort of set on going to Spain… Closer to my roots and family in Holland, but not too close. It seems like the perfect go-between between Honduras and Holland. Who knows?

So, two more short months and Arte Acción Copán Ruinas will be history. It’s a bit sad, of course, but at the same time I’m excited and confident about the future. I also feel profoundly grateful for the experience and immensely proud of my team. Some of them my former students, they are now terrific, open minded instructors who have developed tremendously and who see every difficulty as a challenge. I’m sure they’ll go very far!
Rests me to take a deep bow and thank you all who have so faithfully and generously supported us: my colleagues whom I love more than anything in the world; the volunteers who invested their time and experience in our organization; our sponsors who are the very best in the universe; our friends and partners of Arte Acción in Tegucigalpa and all the other people from all over the world who have helped us with donations, some small, some big, but always making a difference.
And last but not least, of course also a shout out to all the kids in Copán Ruinas for whom we’re all doing this and without whom there would be no Arte Acción Copán Ruinas in the first place….

Thanks!