From 2pm, the Bethel Choir will sing some of their flagship songs including “Jingle Bells” and “Gloria”. They will also be joined at the stage by the Instant Noodles Jazz Band, with Bethel’s co-founder Guillaume Gauvain at the keyboards.

In this event baptised as From darkness to light, an experience that touches the spirit, the music will be followed by a presentation on Bethel and a tea reception, during which attendants will also have the chance to buy Bethel-made scarves, T-shirts and jewelry.

The concert will give Bethel’s team a chance to explain their mission to the general public, but it will also be an opportunity for the children to have fun, something considered essential in the centre’s philosophy.

“No matter the difficulties these kids have faced in the past, a good dose of fun, love and safety will do miracles”, says Guillaume.

However, those are not the only reasons that make this year’s event special. For Guillaume and Delphine Gauvain, Bethel’s 2nd Annual Charity Concert is also a way to celebrate a turning point in the project’s path.

Under the wings of the Save the Children Project launched by the China Social Workers Association (Ministry of Civil Affairs) and with the help of many staff members, volunteers and sponsors, what started six years ago as a small-scale initiative has turned into a growing project that now aims to go far beyond Bethel’s walls.

The Gauvains, who started taking care of the first three blind orphans in their own home in 2003, now have under their care more than 35 children of all ages, from 20 state-run orphanages across China living in a near self-sustainable and environmentally-friendly facility located in Doudian town, in Beijing’s Fangshan district.

After six years of expanding their knowledge of foster care, specialized education, children’s psychology, orientation and mobility and even hippotherapy, Bethel’s team feels the time has come to share their experiences with orphanages across the country so that they can help improve the quality of life of the hundreds of blind or visually impaired children that still live in those centres.

Under the project “5-5-5″, their goal for the next five years is giving 5.000 orphans free access to information, education, mobility and vacation. They will also strive to train carers from a total of 500 orphanages.

The challenge is great, but so is their determination and enthusiasm. Join the Bethel team at the Westin and see how far children can go with the right kind of support.

RSVP

If you are interested in attending the event or you would like to make your contribution to Bethel through volunteering, teaching or sponsoring, please contact Zach Johnson at zach@bethelchina.org or call 80310383.

Location: Westin Beijing Chaoyang (See map).

Written by Julia Sorribes in collaboration with the Bethel Team

Excerpt: “Survivors’ Poetry was established in 1991 by four major poets who had first-hand experience of the mental health system. The current CEO of Survivors’ Poetry, Simon Jenner, describes the national charity’s main aim as promoting poetry and associated literary arts ‘by and for survivors of mental distress’ and to play a part in enabling recovery”.

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“From Russia”, curated by Norman Rosenthal and Ann Dumas and hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts, includes an overwhelming collection of more than 140 works.

Paintings by renowned artists like Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Picasso, Kandinsky or Matisse are present in this exhibition, which gathers for the first time funds from the State Puskin Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakon Gallery in Moscow, the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

The exhibit illustrates the way Russian painters discovered the art movements that flourished in France from the end of the 19^th century and adapted them according to their own cultural heritage.

“From Russia” illustrates how the interaction between the different techniques and concepts of art led to the blossoming of the Russian versions of realism, impressionism and cubism and also paved the way to new ways of expression.

An example of the latter is Russian Cubo-Futurism, born as a combination of the object fragmentation that defined French cubism and the dynamism inherent to Italian futurism. Pavel Filanov´s “The German War” (1914), included in the exhibition, belongs to that artistic current.

Kazmir Malevich´s “Black Square”, which can be seen in the eight gallery of the exhibition, is the epitome of suprematism. This movement went beyond the abstraction used by Wassily Kandinsky to describe his feelings in the famous painting “Composition VII”.

The ninth and last gallery hosts a large model of Vladimir Tatlin´s “Monument to the Third International”, a project that condenses the ideals of the constructivists. The group, born in the 1920s, produced art with “the forms of everyday life” and created pieces with an industrial air.

The difference between the artistic styles can be clearly seen in the many portraits included in the exhibition. Pierre August Renoir uses impressionistic techniques to depict actress Jeanne Samary and manages to capture her innocence and expression of wonder.

Contrarily, Ilya Pepin´s portrait of Leo Tolstoy exudes realism and lets the thoughtful attitude of the writer trespass the boundaries of the canvas.

Pepin is also the author of one of the best-known paintings that can be seen in the exhibit, “17 October 1905”. This large work, which depicts a crowd celebrating the uprising against the Russian Romanov regime and the Orthodox Church, is situated in the first gallery above the rest of the paintings, dominating the space.

While Ilya Pepin´s painting reflects a historical moment, works like “Blessing of young couple before marriage” by Pascal Dagnon-Bouveret, extremely realistic and detailed, constitute an accurate account of the social structure and conventions of the time.

Beyond the strictly artistic dimension, “From Russia” stresses the importance of the arts collectors´ role. Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, both from wealthy Russian textile families, managed to put together what is considered two of the largest collections of French art.

The “Dance II” and “Red Room” by Matisse and Cézanne´s “Girl at the piano” hung on the walls of the Royal Academy constitute just a small portion of their acquisitions.

Shchukin also acknowledged the artistic quality of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso´s works. The paintings included in the exhibition are only an example of the around fifty canvases by this representative of cubism that he owned.

The exhibit pays tribute in one of its galleries to impresario Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes and leader of the group World of Art, which introduced Western art to Russia through several exhibitions. The group “Jack of Diamonds”, which combined admiration for Cézanne and Russian folk, is present in the exhibit through the self-portrait of Mashkov, one of its members.

“From Russia” is not an exhibition for the impatient. Two hours are not enough to observe the myriad of paintings and understand their significance. Even if the visitor has the impression of contemplating a fast-forwarded version of decades, the exhibition certainly sparks curiosity and prompts more than one thoughtful hum. “From Russia” will be open until the 18^th of April.

Extracto: Los factores determinantes en la aparición de grupos juveniles con conductas delictivas son la exclusión social y la marginación, y no la inmigración, según manifestó hoy Juan José Medina, del Centro de Criminología y Estudios Socio-jurídicos de la Universidad de Manchester

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Extracto:  El ejército realizara una labor coordinada de apoyo y control para el desarrollo y organización del quinto Encuentro Mundial de las Familias y la visita del Papa a Valencia, aportando medios e infraestructuras para la logística relacionada con la atención a los peregrinos del 1 al 9 de Julio.

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Extracto: “Las organizaciones ecologistas afirman que los acuíferos son esenciales, ya que garantizan las reservas de agua del futuro. Sin embargo la sequía, pero sobre todo el exceso de pozos, el 80% de ellos ilegales, están poniendo en peligro las reservas hídricas subterráneas y todos los ecosistemas que dependen de ellas”.

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Extracto: “Mientras el metro cuadrado sube como la espuma, los arquitectos buscan soluciones imaginativas y habitables”.

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Extracto: “El Reina Sofía, que hoy acoge el primer concierto de su historia, es la culminación de la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, proyecto que el gobierno autonómico inicio en 1996 para hacer de Valencia una ciudad de vanguardia”.

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Extract: “Poet and visual artist John Weedon unleashed his two
passions on Monday 16th June in the Poetry Café, Covent
Garden, during the opening night of “The Lady Dressed
in Red”, an exhibition inspired by light which stems from
the powerful embrace between verse and painting”.

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