Fresh news about "Freedom and Art" book 2008 - 2012

 

How amazing that The Lady Daw Aung San Suu Kyi received our book after so many years......

Carol Flaitz
Dear Mirca Art Group members,

Thanks to Carla Goldberg I had the opportunity to have a show at Skylight Gallery in New York City. There I had a chance to meet a wonderful gentleman who worked for the United Nations for years before retiring. He personally knows Aung San Suu Kyi, so I told him about our book, "Freedom and Art" and our talk in Beacon to bring awareness to the plight of the people of Burma. He is still in touch with people traveling to Rangoon for diplomatic work and he has told me that he will make sure that our book travels to Aung San Suu Kyi and is given to her, not through the post but it will be placed in her hand. I was so touched, there are just no words. The great lady will hold in her hand our book. It was worth everything.

Love,
Carol Flaitz

Book available:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/367936

 

PRESS RELEASE 2008

The Voice of Art in a Battle for Freedom

International artists create book in support of key political figure

On October 2nd, 2008, the Mirca Art Group, an international coalition of professional artists, will release their landmark collaborative effort, a book entitled Freedom & Art, to the public. The book features 74 works of art, each accompanied by a short statement about the synergy of freedom and art in our world, and is being sold to raise funds in support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a key political figure who has been under house arrest in Myanmar (formerly Burma) for the past 18 years over her bid for political freedom.

The book will be released to the public initially through an event called “Set a Book Free” on Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday, October 2nd when all artists featured within the pages of the book will place a copy donated by Internet-based publishing site Blurb.com in a public location to raise interest.

The project was born out of artmesh, a social media website that allows artists to network via forums and groups, similar to the way users interact on social mega-site Facebook.com. Swedish founder Stefan Tunedal created the Mirca Art Group as a private forum within artmesh that would focus on fostering art-orientated discussions in an open, tolerant atmosphere. The Mirca Art group eventually grew to include nearly 250 artists from six continents and over thirty countries. Aung San Suu Kyi and her battle for freedom – a passion of  Tunedal’s – became a rallying cause for the group and is the inspiration for the book.

According to Carla Goldberg, US-based coordinator and senior editor for Freedom & Art, the book was meant to harness the energy and passion of the artists for Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi into an actionable strategy to aid in her release. On the effort to work with artists from around the world, Carla says, “The project has brought our group together in a whole new way.  There has been a lot of wonderful back-and-forth on message boards and everyone has been willing to offer their individual talents where needed.”  On the effort to assemble the work of the artists together, she says, "It has been like assembling a beautiful puzzle...each piece is unique and, in the end, everything has fit together to create a complete work of art."

After its initial release to the public in October the book will be available for sale through the official website of Amnesty International and Amazon.com. All proceeds from the sale of the book Freedom & Art will be donated to Amnesty International to support efforts being made on behalf of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's . A traveling exhibit featuring a selection of the art published in the book is also planned. It will open February 14, 2009, at the Mount Beacon Fine Arts Gallery in Beacon, NY.

 “I wanted to see what I can do from this safe studio in Stockholm where it would be impossible to even think of imprisoning an elected (official)," says Tunedal when asked about his passion for the plight Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.  “A woman like her should not be treated like this.  She has the right to be free," adds Hungarian artist Krisztina Asztalos, writing from the other side of Europe.  "Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts...are an inspiration for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation."

By working together in the spirit of global collaboration, these artists have become a united voice of hope and pierced places where freedom has failed with the liberating power of artistic expression.