Meet Carla!

This year CIAMO is excited to have as Peace Corps Response Music Teacher, singer-songwriter Carla Seidl.  She teaches basic music at CIAMO as well as guitar and dance. She also plans to develop an interdisciplinary project at the center as part of her studies at Goddard College.

CiamoReport: Where are you from in the states?

Carla: I grew up on Long Island, about an hour from New York City. I have since lived, worked, and studied in Massachusetts, Iowa, Chile, Maine, Azerbaijan, and Togo.

CiamoReport: What is your background in the creative arts?

Carla: Singing and writing have always been important pursuits for me. Adding in foreign languages, storytelling, anthropology, and dance, I created my own major as an undergraduate called Expression and Culture Studies. Afterwards, I studied documentary radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and started working independently as a singer-songwriter, writer, and documentary radio producer. I am currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, so working among the myriad arts happenings at CIAMO is an especially good place for me at this time in my life.

CiamoReport: What inspired you to apply for your PCR post?

Carla: While working as a Girls' Education and Empowerment volunteer in Togo, I became very involved with a local cultural center and in collaborating musically with local artists. Perhaps the highlight of my service in Azerbaijan, too, was the work I did in the domains of music, dance, and theater with local students. So, shifting to work at a music and arts education center such as CIAMO was a natural fit.

CiamoReport: What are your initial impressions of CIAMO?

Carla: I like the way CIAMO stretches kids' imaginations and creative problem solving skills. I also think that the interest of this organization in furthering collaboration across discliplines is very important. CIAMO's goal of involving local artists and transitioning into a community-directed enterprise will be key to its future sustainability.

Meet Lydia!

Lydia Dambekalns has recently joined our team as our Curriculum Development Peace Corps Response volunteer. Peace Corps Response offers support to local and international organizations who need assistance in specialty areas. In this case, we really lucked out! Lydia is a fantastic addition to our team!

CIAMO Report: Where are you from in the States?

Lydia: I am originally from Virginia, we still have a family farm in the Shenandoah Valley. I went to College at William and Mary and then went directly into the Peace Corps in the early 1980s, first Benin for a few months, and then when the program fell through I was transferred to Kenya where I worked with Rural Women's Development and animal husbandry projects. I came back to the states where I worked as a regional recruiter for the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington DC, and then decided to go to graduate school at Penn State where I earned a doctorate in Curriculum Studies and Art Education. I'd always wanted to live out in the Rocky Mountains, so I applied for and got the professor job at the University of Wyoming where I have been ever since 1996. I love everything about Wyoming except the long cold winters. I have a ranch there in Laramie with a partner where we raise and ride horses (mostly Arabians). I have also worked with women's literacy projects in Nepal and did a Fulbright at the University of Latvia on my last sabbatical in 2004-05. My personal interests include travel, art making, animals of all sorts, dance, and reading.

CIAMO Report:  How did you get into the creative arts:

Lydia:  I started drawing with my older half-siter. My parents met ballroom dancing in Washington DC, so that was always a part of my childhood. I learned piano from my dad.  As a kid I always liked to make things out of other things, so I ended up double majoring in Studio Art and English in college. I have been involved with all different types of art, but now I like to focus on Fiber Arts the most.

CIAMO Report: What inspired you to apply to be a Peace Corps Response Volunteer?

Lydia: By luck I happened to look on the listing of opportunities and I saw this one which seemed too good to be true and a real match of my skills. Best of all, I am on academic sabbatical from my university for a year, so I really could come here. I have longed to get back to West Africa and thus it is so wonderful to have support from Peace Corps. I would love to learn about all the local arts customs here in the coming months, as well as give back any curriculum support that i can to the education community here.

CIAMO Report: What are you first impressions of CIAMO?


Lydia: Incredible energy! I cannot believe that someone like Sarah Dupont had a vision and was actually able to put all the pieces together and make it a reality. I really like the mix of talent and perspectives between African and PC instructors here. I am quite concerned that this place be able to continue in the future, so my goal is to see how much we can document this year in order to aid the directors/instructors in the future. John Mark and Sarah got things off to a great beginning, so extending their efforts is really important.  Especially impressive is the use of technology. I also hope to see us expand out into the community in other schools, but there is SO very much to do here that it is hard not to become "scattered". I personally would like to figure out some way to do teacher training before I leave.

Who are you?

Recently we asked our students and all of you to send us your self portraits. Here's the results!




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Mural Outreach

Malaria, which kills almost a million people a year, is a costly disease for the continent of Africa. CIAMO recently created a project, with help from Peace Corps’ Small Project Assistance Fund, that uses visual and performing arts as a way to do community outreach about topics such as Malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention.

After learning about malaria, its symptoms and its prevention, 5 artists (including Sarah, our art teacher) were paired with 6 primary and high school students to design and realize large murals in five places throughout the city of Ouidah. This gave students a chance to put their newly acquired artistic skills to work and artists the chance to encourage and teach the children new techniques.

In the end, their work yielded incredible results, all of which have really caught the attention of the people of Ouidah and visitors from elsewhere! The standard messages such as “Mosquitoes give you malaria!” “Malaria is prevented by mosquito nets!” and “Keep your household clean to avoid mosquitoes!” find new life in these incredible works!

Here they are:

Student Leonel and Artist Jean Louis

Student Ariane and Artist/Teacher Sarah Ellison

Student Lorrie and artist 

Studen Carine and artist Paschal Avokpo

Marina, Valerie, and the artist Elon-m

MiniCamp!

Last weekend, we put on a “Mini Camp” at CIAMO, a three-day long camp model that gave a group of 30 kids a taste of the full CIAMO experience.  Our hope is that the camp will entice the students to explore the arts as well as encourage their parents to understand the important role of arts education in the development of their children.  

Every day began with warm-ups that involved yoga and vocal exercises. In the domain of the performing arts, the children had the chance to learn traditional Mina rhythm with local artists Joseph Mahinou and Sim De Souza.  They also learned to tell stories and create skits in Fon and French. Each skit ended with a song that reinforced the moral of the story. They danced too! With both Sarah and Sim, the students learned country line dancing and some improvisatory dancing techniques too.

In the domain of visual art, the kids learned about color mixing by creating Mondrian style collages and by learning traditional cloth dying from Sarah and local artist Paschal Avokpo.  They also made trash into treasure by experimenting with paper bead-making and by doing decoupage on calabashes using old magazines. The last day, the kids used their newly acquired color knowledge to create beautiful paintings spanning 3 yards.

The experience ended with a closing ceremony. The kids were proud to show their parents everything they learned during the camp. Parents were equally proud and impressed with their work. They are already asking to sign up their children for the coming school year.  Mission accomplished! 

Nigerian Students Visit the Center

Students from Grange School

As part of collaboration with International Academy of the French Language, CIAMO recently hosted a group of 38 Nigerian students from Grange School, for a morning of art and music. These students were participating in a week-long French-language focused field trip to Benin.

The students were divided into two groups, each of which spent about 50 minutes with the both the John Mark in the music room and Sarah in the art room. A bit of Irony ensued as both of them, former English teachers, proceeded to teach French while teaching art and music.

Un elephant. . .

In the music room the students learned the Peace Corps Classic, “J’ai dit a boom chika boom” the song in French, “Un Elephant qui Se Ballançait” accompanied by all of the appropriate gestures. In the art room the students worked on a recycling project. They were all taught how to make paper beads using old magazines, matches and glues.

Bead making workshop. . .

Upon their depart, every student made a small donation to the school, a way of showing their recognition of the value of our project, which gives children less fortunate then themselves the chance to learn art and music.

CIAMO students receiving donations.

5 CIAMO students were present to help with the sessions. They sang and played their instruments. After, several students from Grange School offered their own little concert for the group. CIAMO holds fast to its international status, and is always excited and eager to give its students a chance to engage with people from other countries and cultures. Thanks to Grange School, for visiting!

Dansons Maintenant!

 As part of their acclaimed exhibition on photography of dance, featuring the work of photographer Antoine Tempé, Fondation Zinsou is bringing a variety of dancers to Benin to perform at the exhibition site. CIAMO was lucky enough this week to receive two of the dancers, Melodie Joinville and Celine Gayon, from le Compagnie Christine Bastin .

The dancers worked with our Troupe de Ganvé and our newly established Troupe d’Oke Agbere. With the two groups they did a variety of inspiring activities that especially encouraged the kids to creatively choreograph their own dances.

Thanks to Fondation Zinsou for bringing these fantastic dancers to Benin and for sharing them with us!