September 1, 1999

Global Art Project 2000: International Art Exchange Promotes World Peace -A Hand's On Millennium Event

The week of April 23-30, 2000 marks the 4th biennial Global Art Project (GAP) exchange, a multicultural, multimedia event that has linked approximately 30,000 participants on six continents who choose to share their creative visions of a World at Peace. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, with the direction of founder Katherine Josten, GAP provides a unique worldwide matching system enabling individuals and groups of diverse ages and backgrounds the opportunity to exchange art as a "Gift of Global Friendship". The exchange will result in thousands of messages of Peace and Friendship simultaneously encircling the Earth during the last week of April.

From grassroot beginnings in 1994 with 3,600 participants; 6,300 in 1996 to over 20,000 in 1998, GAP's growing international impact is evident. Support for GAP is diverse, ranging from governmental agencies and institutions, public and private sector organizations and groups to individual interest. Prior exchange efforts of the Global Art Project, a non-profit organization, previously acknowledged as newsworthy, now become a "Millennium Art Event" focusing on the value of the arts as a pathway to understand the world as it is and to imagine how it might be. Stated Boston Globe correspondent, Kathy P. Behan, "the idea is as simple as it is profound - to spread World Peace and Unity through art.

Also representative of the tremendous response to the Global Art Project is the on-going "Let's All Join Hands!" project, a collection of paper hand cut-outs expressing messages for global peace and friendship. Visions of Global Unity: Inspired Images from the Global Art Project, a 30-picture postcard book from the 1994 exchange is sold at the United Nations Bookshop/NY and through the Global Art Project. Images in the 1996 and 1998 GAP gallery @www.global-art.org may be downloaded for publication with this press release. Interviews and further documentation of the complete project are available upon request.

The Global Art Project 2000 Registration Deadline is February 14, 2000 (Postmark).

Time Table for GAP 2000 Exchange:
1) International Registration for Participation: Postmark Deadline - February 14, 2000.
2) Creation of Artwork Expressing Global Unity (any medium - visual, literary, audio, performance, etc.): March 2000.
3) Local Community Displays of the Art Created: April 1-22, 2000
4) Worldwide Art Exchange: April 22-30, 2000
5) Community Exhibits of Art Received: Ongoing
6) Paper Hands for the "Let's All Join Hands" Project may be sent to GAP at any time.

For additional information, contact Katherine Josten send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Global Art Project, PO Box 40445, Tucson AZ, 85717, USA.