Down Right Beautiful

Mexican School of Down Art
Alvaro Trejo 

The accomplishments of the students at the Mexican School of Down Art are shattering preconceptions about mentally disabled people — especially in the developing world where resources for the handicapped can be scarce, leaving many to struggle for dignity. "They shatter the stereotype that individuals with Down syndrome have no interior mental life of richness and complexity," said Dr. David Braddock, who heads the University of Colorado's cognitive disabilities institute and who helped bring their artwork to the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. Art instructor Daniel Perez says "They have a capacity, a sensitivity, for art: They're very creative and their limitations enable them to see the world in a way you and I don't. Looking at a piece of art like this makes you realize that they're capable of anything." The school is part of the John Langdon Down Foundation, a non-profit founded in 1972 that provides education, counseling and medical care to 500 low-income students with Down syndrome in Mexico City. What began as part-time classes, is now a full-time art school for about 25 adults, aged 18 to 54. The students not only get technical instruction, but take classes in art history, meet with other Mexican artists and tour art exhibits. Such vivid colors and broad brush strokes of the paintings captivated Swiss artist and pediatrician Christine Aebi who took 28 of the paintings to Switzerland for a 10-day show she organized at Bern's Paul Klee Museum in September 2006. "I was positively shocked by the beauty of the paintings. It was something like when I saw Klee's paintings for the first time," says Aebi, who has treated Down children. "There's no intellectual filter between what they're expressing and what they're seeing." The exhibit was so popular that it was extended to Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Warsaw. This year it is scheduled to visit Stockholm, Sweden; Vienna; Budapest, Hungary; and Rome.

Full Article:
 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-09-artists_N.htm?POE=click-refer

Mexican School of Down Art's website:
http://www.fjldown.org.mx/en/art.html
People with Down syndrome make us look at a life more deeply; if we spend time with them and succeed in fathoming their way of looking at the world, they may help us reassess our essential values. Behind their visible shortcomings the strength of the human spirit emerges, the creative skills that go beyond the mechanisms of intelligence and that permeate everything with a light that only they can give us: to enjoy life with no restrictions.

Peter Johnson

Sujeet Desai

Hi, My name is Sujeet Desai. Suj is my nickname. I am 26 years old. On June 22, 2001 I graduated from Fayetteville-Manlius High school in Syracuse, New York with (4.3 GPA) honor roll. In May 2003 I graduated from the Berkshire Hills Music Academy in South Hadley, Massachusetts after two-year residential Post-secondary study in Music and Human services. After returning from the academy I moved to Rome, NY to start a job as a musician . In july 2006 I got married to Carrie Bergeron. Now we both live in an appartment in Rome, NY and enjoy our indepnedent life together. Oh! I forgot to tell you that I was born with Down syndrome!
   In 1998, when Sujeet started to volunteer to provide entertainment the overwhelming response received from his audience led to his decision to make music his career. Since March 2000 he has performed in many States, National and International conferences, annual events and is booked in advance till 2008. Sujeet is a recipient of 8 International awards for his music and self-advocacy. Besides music Sujeet has a 2nd degree Black Belt in martial arts (Tae Kwon Do). He has won Gold & silver medals in the World Games 99 Special Olympics in Swimming and numerous medals in Special Olympics in Alpine skiing, Cross-country running and Bowling. He enjoys writing emails to his fans from all over the world who visit his web site. Sujeet opened his web site in 1997 in his computer graphic class, which is visited by over 184,000 people from around the world with rave reviews. Two documentaries done on his life and had many TV and newspaper interviews. Since his trailblazing marraige to Carrie they both been featured in Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, aired on national TV shows like "The Views", "20/20" , " Operah Winfrey" and WCNY public channel. Sujeet has worked very hard throughout the last decade trying to become the finest musician he can be, while also working to overcome the limitations of his disability. Music has helped him bridge this gap. With his musical versatility Sujeet has become a role model and has brought inspiration and hope to individuals with disability, their parents, educators, and the services that work with them. Sujeet's family takes pride in him for all that he has brought into their lives. Currently Sujeet's parents travel with him to support him with his performances and workshops. Sujeet shares his story with a power point workshop. Sujeet's MISSION is to send a message across the world that given opportunities for their abilities individual with disabilities can “Make It Happen!” Sujeet's music is more than just an entertainment. It's educational, inspirational and focused to make his MISSION POSSIBLE!

For performance videos and list of awards, see his website:
http://www.sujeet.com/

Jane Cameron

Born in High River, Alberta, in 1949, Jane Cameron had an exemplary life. She travelled the globe, met dignitaries and stars, filled her room with medals and trophies commemorating her feats, and earned the esteem of countless individuals who praise her art and her grace. When she was diagnosed with Down syndrome at four months old, Jane's parents were told their daughter was "retarded" and that they should: "Put her in an institution and forget about her." They were shocked and, despite knowing little to nothing about Down syndrome they decided that what their child needed was as much love, care and education as they could possibly give her. When Jane was thirteen her school in Montreal implemented a policy that "these children" needed no academic training apart from such things as street signs and signs for Danger, Men and Women. Unwilling to accept that Jane deserved anything less in life than any other child, the Cameron's enroled her into the internationally renowned Doctor Franklin Perkins School in Lancaster, Massachusetts. After ten years at the Perkins school Jane joined the sheltered workshop, "Le Fil d'Ariane" back in Montreal. This workshop or Atelier was quite unique; it is more of an art school than a workshop. Jane quickly demonstrated that she was much more than a stitcher who could follow patterns. Jane soon became the alelier's chief designer. Many of her designs were turned into huge tapestries that were commissioned by such organizations as the office of the Prime Minister, Mirabel Airport and Reader's Digest Canada. Although her artistic talent was not discovered until Jane was about twenty, her tapestries now hang across the world. Jane's embroidered tapestries are glowing statements of her imagination and her love and affection for all living things. A life that could have been a tragedy became one of joy for Jane's parents and hope for other parents of children with Down syndrome. Jane was also an accomplished swimmer with many medals for her success including the two silver ones she won in international competition at the Special Olympics in Brockport, New York. She was featured in the film on the Special Olympics: "It's in Everyone of Us", and has appeared on television in Montreal and Calgary. Perhaps Jane's greatest accolade is the book written about her and her art by Dr. M. Klager, a professor of art at Heidleberg University.

To view her artwork and poems, see Jane Cameron's website:
http://www.janecameron.com/artwork.html

Raymond Hu

Raymond Hu is a twenty-one-year-old artist residing in Alamo, CA.  Born with Down syndrome, Raymond graduated from San Ramon Valley High School, Danville, California in summer 1996, where he was enrolled in a full inclusion program for four years.  Since Sept. 1996, he has been attending a Transistion Program in the high school, and taking art and other classes at Diablo Valley College and Laney College.  Raymond has been studying Chinese brush painting with renowned San Francisco artist Lampo Leong since 1990.  He has developed a uniquely free and expressive style of painting that has won much critical acclaim.  In the last few years, he has concentrated on painting animals, ranging from lions to tigers, lizards, elephants, birds, and fish.  He uses photos of animal images as models, but his interpretation is quite unique.  The medium he uses is ink and watercolor applied with round brush on thin absorbant rice-paper. Raymond's paintings have won many awards and honors.  In 1993, his Tiger was awarded the first prize in "A Very Special Art Show", a statewide competition sponsored by the Sacramento Association for the Retarded and chosen from over 1,000 entries to be the Association's 20th Anniversary Show poster.  In 1994, his Elephant won second prize in the Student Art Contest of the California Association for the Gifted.  In September 1995, Raymond was honored by a Tribute to Raymond in the Congressional Records.  In 1996, his White Dove was selected to be the cachet design for the Official First Day Cover of the United Nations Philatelists to commemorate the issuance of six stamps on the theme of "A Plea for Peace". Raymond's art has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. Most noteworthy are his solo shows at the Bedford gallery, Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Sept.-Nov., 1995, the Marjorie Evans Gallery in Carmel, Oct.-Nov., 1996, and at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Oakland, Aug.-Oct., 1997.  He also has an ongoing exhibit at the Very Special Arts Gallery West, Beverly Hills, California.    Raymond has been the subject of many articles in newspapers and magazines, television interviews and documentaries.  A documentary Raymond's Portrait:Live and Art of Raymond Hu, produced by award-winning producer Donald Young, was first aired on KCSM-TV60, San Mateo, California, May 28, 1997.  The documentary was very well received in the San Francisco bay area and may be released nationally. A book entitled The Eyes of Raymond Hu, containing 42 fascinating paintings of animals by Raymond, was recently published and has been a popular item in local bookstores.  

To view his artwork, see Raymond Hu's website:
http://www-atdp.berkeley.edu/1623/students/jason/Raymond.html

Down syndrome in Art

In storage at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the secret to what one professor calls “the first Down Syndrome Association in the history of the world.” In 1982, Dr. Brian Stratford, a specialist in developmental disabilities at the University of Nottingham, suggested in the journal Maternal and Child Health that the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna used a little boy with Down syndrome as the model for his Christ child. Stratford made a “clear characteristic diagnosis” of the baby based on his distinctive facial features and the shape of his hands and toes. The curator at the MFA dismissed this theory, attributing the work to an unknown, less technically astute follower of Mantegna, and calling the resemblance to a child with Down syndrome accidental. In the meantime, however, Stratford heard from a history professor in Rome. The Gonzaga family of Mantua, Mantegna’s sponsor, had a boy with an unidentified “sickness,” she said, and one of the artist’s own fourteen children shared this condition—a not insignificant factor in Ludovico Gonzaga’s choice of Andrea Mantegna as his court painter. Gonzaga and Mantegna appreciated the humanity of these children whom some might have preferred to hide away or let die, and that shared sensitivity gave them a “sense of purpose” with respect to disability which Stratford regrets has been all but forgotten by our society: “Perhaps Mantegna saw in this child something beyond the deficiencies which now so occupy our attention and perhaps then, the qualities of love, forgiveness, gentleness, and innocence were more readily recognized. Maybe Mantegna saw these qualities as more representative of Christ than others we now regard so highly.”

Full Article:
 http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/at-home-with-down-syndrome