Reach Beyond is an ongoing collaboration with Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK).  NYC-based ARK gets kids back to school and creates income in rural communities in the developing world.  In 2013, Haiyan devastated ARK partner communities in Capiz, Philippines affecting over 2,100 students and 15,000 residents.  By integrating the arts into our successful feeding, education and rebuilding programs, we want to give the kids and their communities the ability to dream, express, and create. In doing so, we will continue creating paths forward and out of poverty.  

 

To launch this project, we asked the students in Pinamalatican what they want; from their friends, from their families, from their communities, and from the themselves.  Our hope was that from their responses, we could find a form that would inspire the students and stand as a symbol for the entire community. 

 

Along the way, we realized that a monument was our ambition.  A sculpture could be beautiful, but it would also be our projection onto this community.  The most important thing we had done in "the planning" was "the asking."  We decided "the asking" was the work and is we can keep challenging these kids to articulate what they want, we can challenge them to dream beyond their communities.  In this way, the "Dream Home" was born.