We received the news that UNESCO had named Twins Seven-Seven its Artist for Peace for 2005. The award was presented by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura at a ceremony in Paris on May 25th, 2005. The ceremony was attended by His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairperson of the African Union.

MINHAZZ MAJUMDAR (Craft Revival Trust, 2004)

Perhaps the last great master of Haitian "primitive" art (the other being P.J. Valcin, below), Alexandre Gregoire passed away at his home in Jacmel, Haiti on July, 28, 2001. You may read a more extensive obituary published by the Haiti Support Network (click to read the obituary). We were fortunate to visit Gregoire in his Port-au-Prince studio on several occasions, and have shown his work for the last ten years.

I visited Cuba in February and March 2000, while people in both our countries had been worked into a frenzy over the fate of a six year old boy named Elian. The media's fixation on the little boy playing on the back yard slide had turned Miami into what one writer called "Planet Elian". While cynical American politicians who normally preach "family values" conspired to keep Elian from rejoining his father, the Cuban government had realized what a massive propaganda gift the United States had bestowed upon them. They made the most of it.