What can we achieve when we collaborate together?

Do our backgrounds affect the way we experience human emotions or are we united by a common experience, a oneness? Does our education, faith, nationality or gender change our views?

The project deals with the association of core human emotions through artistic expression. The themes attached to the works – “LOVE” and “FEAR” – will show the power and beauty of a combined creation and the effect the theme has on the end result.

Is it what one would expect or is it a complete surprise?

Love & Fear

The Making of The World Wide Art Exhibition.

The Making of The World Wide Art Exhibition.

The exhibition was initially setup to show a series of portraits made by the artist to express the changes of the” outside” all portraits were based on the same face, changing only the skin colour, cultural and social differences and how life impacts on how we look and to explore the reaction of the public by looking at the same person in a different situation.

This made the artist think about the impact of the emotions of love and fear. How does the emotional side ’the inside’ change this face and she started to work on the plan of splitting up the portraits to work with groups to have a collaborative expression of these emotions and to explore if the faces change by working with groups in different countries, settings and situations. The World Wide Art Project was born.

Hinterland Gallery 2015

The First series of portraits are currently in Dover College, kindly donated by Maria Collins, the second series, The Gurkha community portraits are exhibited in Folkestone at Sir John Moore Barracks and the third series is at Guston Church of England Primary School.

The project has been silent for a while after the first peak in 2015 after that Jolanda started travelling with her family and needed time to focus on other projects as well as finding a way to support the project better financially by looking for sponsorship and volunteers. During this time the World Wide Art Project has matured and grown to a bigger bolder version of Love and Fear, with a clearer vision and support network, as well as becoming a stronger organisation to give people in different communities a voice and the space to express themselves, with the power of bringing people together and create art.

The intention of the World Wide Art Project is to create a space and platform where awareness is raised for the people and organisations which have taken part. To show who they are and what they stand for, to learn from each other and to take time to look deeper within the lines of others and oneself. This takes time for the people who create, but also for the people who will view the art. There are many stories untold and these stories supported by the visual images of these strong emotions will have an impact on us all. The completed portraits that have been created can be seen next to previous portraits of other groups to show the impact and different outcomes of Love and Fear depending on the country or group they have been part of. Connections are made between galleries and organisations to see the bigger picture of the different project running around the world. This is just the start and the World Wide Art organisation is working hard to form new connections, find sponsorship and space to be able to grow.

First time working out how to create 80 squares out of a big sheet of linen with the outline painted on.

Learning from the past. Looking to the future.
Ari Voxx

Jolanda Aucott preparing the first canvas for the World Wide Art Project in 2015.

Preparing the canvas (2015)

Explaining the World Wide Art project in the community hall in Folkestone to the Gurkha Community.

Gurkha Community

The first squares are finished by the pupils and teachers of Dover College (2015).

Dover College

Workshop with Jolanda Aucott at Guston Church of England Primary School (2015).

Guston Church of England Primary School

Preparation for the opening in Hinterland Gallery with Susanne Olbrich.

Hinterland Gallery

Dover College visiting the exhibition, the children are finding their own piece of art back.

Dover College Exhibition

Love & Fear 2023

Jolanda and AnnMarie met at the end of 2022 and joined forces. The World Wide Art Project and UnitingUs created the first US based faces of Love and Fear presented on the 16th of March at the British Embassy in Washington DC. With following portraits in the making for the end of the summer 2023 to be exhibited in London. UnitingUs has been working with many artists through the years and have created outstanding exhibitions, art projects and workshops in and around Washington DC.

Their partnership between them has just begun and they are planning many more projects in the near future, determined to bring more people together all over the world to be able to tell their story and show their talent. They both recognise the importance to give people a space to show their work and for them to be heard no matter where people are from, what they do in life, or what they believe in. The impact of expressing peoples thoughts on an 8×8 square of canvas has more impact than one could imagine and make the viewer stand still for a moment. You will read this in the stories that will be published with the individual paintings.

Canvas preparations for Love & Fear in Washington DC with UnitingUs.

UnitingUs

Discussing the ideas with AnnMarie Halterman from Uniting US.

AnnMarie Halterman

320 canvasses have arrived preparation of the outline can begin!

Canvas Outline

AnnMarie and Tiffany hosting a workshop in their house for British Embassy staff.

British Embassy Staff

The workshop with blind people in Washington DC.

Workshop

Uniting the World Through Art

Enjoy all aspects of the Integrative Arts Activities with the World Wide Art Project and Uniting US! Jolanda Aucott’s gender neutral portrait design is the basis for 80 participants to present the artist representation of “Love and Peace” and “Fear and War”. The participant’s canvasses are reassembled to create two big portraits representing the collective group’s expression. The resulting portraits are then exhibited in Uniting US public gallery locations. We starting this journey with the opening in The British Embassy in Washington DC from where the Uniting the World Through Art portraits are relocated for the second public exhibit. The second series of portraits are about to get underway and will be unveiled in the London Uniting the World Through Art exhibit.

“Create a New Unique Face of Love and Fear.”

“Create a New Unique Face of Love and Fear.”

Please contact me if you have any questions or interested in taking part in the project or fill in the contact form for an information pack. Taking part is possible by donation to keep the project running in different less fortunate communities or by booking a workshop to get your community to create a new unique face of Love and Fear.