Creativity in Juan Montalvo

Creative and educational intervention with the ONOFFON™ project in the Juan Montalvo Commune, in Ecuador.

Among several activities carried out during the development of the ONOFFON™ project, the art workshop given by Mauro Rojas made it possible to connect with an audience whose life experience is a great contribution to observing how relationships are woven in rural communities of the coastal provinces of Ecuador.

With the coordination by Alfredo Moreira, who collaborated with the rapprochement with the Juan Montalvo commune in the Province of Santa Elena, in Ecuador, a creative moment was shared with older people of this community, including a mask workshop.

In Juan Montalvo we met Ricardina, who still has the hats that she knitted herself four decades ago.

The activities that made up this meeting not only nourished the participation of the attendees through drawing, figurine modeling and mask making, but also left the door open to begin building trust with an underserved community, and due to that position, relationships were carried out with great caution.

Thanks to adequate treatment in relationships, inside and outside of creative meetings, we were able to better understand the history of the inhabitants of Juan Montalvo, even causing them to recognize their greatest strengths through various moments of dialogue.

Activating ancestral memory was one of the greatest achievements of this creative meeting, and we observed some participants taking initiative to shape the clay prepared for the mask workshop.

The openness achieved nourished this activity by listening to the participants' stories, which flowed with a feeling of trust. At that moment we understood that the methodology applied during the workshop meetings in Juan Montalvo was the correct one, taking care of the human aspects as the main task.

Thanks to this exchange, our approach with the preople from Juan Montalvo expanded our vision in a crucial way, understanding the great pending work that needs to be carried out to promote our natural and cultural wealth.

→ Event: Creativity workshop in the Juan Montalvo commune
→ Project: ONOFFON™
→ Creativity Workshop: Mauro Rojas
→ Venue: Communal House of Juan Montalvo, Santa Elena Province, Ecuador.
→ Coordination: Alfredo Moreira
→ Direction: Mauro Rojas
→ Production: Eonminu®
→ Year: 2011 {alertInfo}