Great Apes Exhibit and Conference

From September 15 to October 25 we presented an exhibit at the Montalieu Library in Isere.

 

This exhibit was a big first for us, as it united several parties: students from The Great Prairie school in Montalieu who had created awareness and informational banners to teach other students, and other artists – photographers and painters.

 

 

 

 

From the start of the new 2014 school year, P-WAC has reached out with this school to increase awareness among students about our primate relatives and deforestation.

This involved group participation, because the students were asked to think for themselves on the issues of deforestation, the consumption of tropical woods and the situation of the great apes in general and chimpanzees in particular. For sure, from the first lessons, some students had very exact ideas and huge enthusiasm to save our nearest relatives!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The presentations took place in a participative atmosphere, with interaction between the presenter and students. The presentation concluded with a game ” The secret of shopping” that consisted of understanding food labeling, and in particular identifying the presence of palm oil, responsible for deforestation in the great apes habitat.

Everyone participated in the game, and the students, learned to identify “hidden” ingredients on the food labels.  One student, on learning of our visit, had prepared his own presentation on what he knew about the primate family. It was very impressive!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the presentation, the students were invited to prepare their own. The five classes who participated this year had imaginations run wild.  Drawings, informational posters, models,  they had lots more ideas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearby, a photography exhibit where we find the magnficent collection of great ape photography by Stéphanie MENG ZIRILLI, and others by Amandine Renaud. To conclude, Laurence SAUNOIS, an internationally acclaimed painter (an article on his work will follow) took us through reproductions of his famous originals.

 

These art pieces (photos or painting reproductions) are for sale to benefit the Association. If you would like photos from the exposition, you can contact us  directly (info@p-wac.org) and if you would like to receive one of Laurence’s reproductions, click here.

A private viewing of the exhibition, viewable until October 25, took place Friday, October 3 along with a conference.

The P-WAC team was present to welcome Laurence DUTHU, our guest for the occasion. The Association No to Palm Oil! is also a new group, and because of this, we thought it would be good to have them by our side.  Small projects need to support each other. Laurence addressed palm oil, local, intensive and “organic” in order to get the audience thinking, so often misinformed by large corporations who produce it. Amandine Renaud, for her part, presented P-WAC’s progress, objectives and partners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of partners, the Morestel Local Association of Crédit Agricole sponsored this event.

Thanks to this partnership, we were able to carry out our education program at Montalieu school. This association encourages local projects, bringing unique projects to the greater public. This is why were were able to convince them to help us. Meeting students to talk about apes, and forests, an idea that may seem strange to some, has, in reality a big impact on students and their families. We were also thrilled to see the littlest once from grades CE2/CM1 encouraged their parents, who were just as curious, to attend the conference.

 

The entire exhibition was able to take place due to everyone’s involvement.

Starting with Mr Guillot, Directeur director of the Montalieu primary school, his teachers Stéphanie DAVID, Olivier BRUN, Séverine HARDOT, Anne MARCELO, Mélanie MERIADEC and their students who agreed to put aside time for our meeting, were able to reach their goals of increasing awareness.  Library Director Catherine HYVERT for her time, her energie and all her help in preparing for the event. Catherine and her team were the first to welcome us a year ago, allowing us to present our project P-WAC to the public. . We’re happy to have them by our side and we offer sincere thanks for their support!

The conference was made possible by our guests who we thank, Laurence DUTHU, as well as Pascual RIMANI, unfortunately unavailable to attend, but who we hope to hear from at our next conference. And finally, we warmly thank our partner for this event, the Association of the Local Branch of Morestel Crédit Agricole, and more precisely Mr Gilles GUIGARD, who has encouraged us from the beginning, as well as Aimé VUAILLAT, President of the Association and members of the board, as well as Adrien VERLHAC, for all his advice on putting our partnership in place.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for the great group effort!