MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu

FAU Hosts "Haitians of Florida: The Hope and the Future"
Photographic Exhibition Celebrates the Haitian Community of Florida

BOCA RATON (December 13, 2005) - Florida Atlantic University's University Galleries and the Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice (TLHS) are proud to announce the upcoming photographic exhibition, "Haitians of Florida: The Hope and the Future." The exhibition will be on display Friday, December 16, 2005 through Wednesday, January 4, 2006 in the Ritter Art Gallery on FAU's Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. The gallery will be open daily from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., with the exception of December 24, 25 and 31. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The exhibition will include photographs by Jerry Lower and Michiko Kurisu, teachers at TLHS, of the Haitian community of South Florida. There will also be photographs by several TLHS students. Lower and Kurisu were commissioned by TLHS, through an artist-in-residence grant from the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, to document the growing Haitian population in the South Florida community. The exhibition is a joint effort between TLHS and Konbit Kreyol, the Haitian Student Organization of FAU. It represents the third event of the Haitian International Museum of Art & Culture (HIMAC), a project of TLHS launched in 2002.

"Haitians need to be able to express and comment on, with their own words and images, the ever-accelerating, ever-multiplying events that are fashioning their story in Florida," said Joe Bernadel, chief operating officer at TLHS and founder of HIMAC. "As observers capable of catching the decisive moments that the oral traditions will not be able to transmit, photographers play an essential role both as witnesses and as artists."

Bernadel came up with the idea for the photographic exhibition. His professional priorities are to build institutions honoring the presence and contributions of Caribbean people in South Florida and to enhance their welfare through education, political advocacy, and economic opportunities.

"Building the photographic skills of the TLHS students, and involving them in this documentary has been especially rewarding," said Lower. "They have some terrific images and see things that adults might miss." Kurisu adds, "Documenting the local Haitian communities has been an encounter with diversity. It's wonderful to see both students and adults embrace photography as a means of personal and artistic expression."

"TLHS is proud to sponsor this event and to see such a valuable segment of our society recognized through the art of photography," said Dr. Diane Allerdyce, co-founder and chief academic officer at TLHS. "The Haitian people in South Florida contribute daily to our culture, and TLHS embraces their presence."

For information, call TLHS at 561-414-5464 or 561-243-3136, or call the FAU University Galleries at 561-297-2966.

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