Welcome to the Something Good in the World Virtual Art Show, a collaboration with the Ossining Public Library and Abbott House, to bring you some of the artwork and creative writing of refugee children from Central America.
These students range in ages from 6 - 17, and are safely sheltered at the Abbott House in Irvington, NY, while they seek asylum and legal resettlement in the United States. During that time, the children are engaged in hands-on, experiential education.
In addition to learning English, Math, Social Studies, and Science, they also participate in art and crafts projects, sports, gardening, and farm-based education. Something Good in the World guides the children through workshops in health and nutrition, permaculture and sustainability, organic agriculture and backyard farming. In the process, students visit local family farms, harvest and prepare meals, and create their own vegetable and herb gardens at school.
Robyn Ellenbogen, the art teacher for Abbott House, guides the children in therapeutic art and crafts projects both in person and virtually.
The artwork and creative writing on this page reflect work done in the school year of 2019/2020, and is intended to shine a light on the situation for the refugee children at this time, by sharing their stories with you. If you feel inclined to support more projects of this kind, please go to the websites of Something Good in the World, Abbott House, and the Ossining Public Library.
“There are things that can only be understood retrospectively, when many years have passed and the story has ended. In the meantime, while the story continues, the only thing to do is tell it over and over again as it develops, bifurcates, knots around itself. And it must be told, because before anything can be understood, it has to be narrated many times, in many different words and from many different angles, by many different minds.”
-Valeria Luiselli, “Tell Me How it Ends”
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