HUMAN RIGHTS PARK
Introduction
The Human Rights Park is an initiative to create an important place of commemoration and reflection in our community. The park will be home to sculptures, artifacts and amenities that celebrate human rights achievements, bring awareness to world-wide human rights abuses and honour activism.
Individuals and groups across the globe are dedicating their lives to defend and promote human rights and peace. This initiative will result in a park where families can explore and discover specially dedicated public art, featuring engaging and experiential sculptures. A local example of sculpture park is located in Bellingham, Washington at Big Rock Park: Link to Big Rock Park website.
The Human Rights Park will feature many sculptures contributed by donor countries and sponsors from around the world. Each sculpture will be designed in honour of specific human rights causes, community groups and global visionaries who promote peace. A tree from the county of origin of each piece will also be planted. The Park will thus grow into a botanical garden, featuring trees from various eco-regions. As each tree grows and develops strong roots, so does the hope for a better future.
Purpose
· Permanent exhibition
· Temporary exhibition
· Botanical Garden
Planning Stage
The park is still in the planning phase. We will soon register as a non-profit society to administer the planning and development of the Park. We will share the park concept with such potential cities as Burnaby, Coquitlam and New Westminster, as well as with the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Board. We envisage a Human Rights Park located in the Metro Vancouver area will serve as an outdoor companion to the Human Rights Museum located in Winnipeg.
Human Rights Park Society
The human rights park society is under registration as a Federal Society. We will work on registering it as a charity soon.
Founding Directors:
· Fred Soofi
· Gaetan Royer
· Hazel Postma
· Melissa Chaun
· Soudeh Jamshidian
The Art pieces
Art competitions will be held for honoring various causes and activists. The pieces will be chosen at the end of the competition and will be delivered to Vancouver through the embassies if needed.
The arrangements will be made for each piece separately and we are planning fundraisers for each one of them if needed.
Deciding on the causes and activists
The decision will be made by the board of directors and the partners (i.e. Amnesty). We will learn from other agencies, such as the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, where Boards have developed criteria for selecting exhibits.
Finances:
The society received seed funding through Fred Soofi. We are planning to register a charity and raise funds through the charity. We will have individual fundraising events for each piece. We are hoping to get support for park maintenance from the host City.
We will also apply for grants through foundations.
Introduction
The Human Rights Park is an initiative to create an important place of commemoration and reflection in our community. The park will be home to sculptures, artifacts and amenities that celebrate human rights achievements, bring awareness to world-wide human rights abuses and honour activism.
Individuals and groups across the globe are dedicating their lives to defend and promote human rights and peace. This initiative will result in a park where families can explore and discover specially dedicated public art, featuring engaging and experiential sculptures. A local example of sculpture park is located in Bellingham, Washington at Big Rock Park: Link to Big Rock Park website.
The Human Rights Park will feature many sculptures contributed by donor countries and sponsors from around the world. Each sculpture will be designed in honour of specific human rights causes, community groups and global visionaries who promote peace. A tree from the county of origin of each piece will also be planted. The Park will thus grow into a botanical garden, featuring trees from various eco-regions. As each tree grows and develops strong roots, so does the hope for a better future.
Purpose
- Honouring Human Rights achievements and causes.
- Providing an outlet for the grief experienced by Families and Allies.
- Supporting research for Human Rights. More specifically, the Human Rights Park will contain a research pavilion, a hub for those wishing to collaborate with human rights organizations, NGOs, academics and government agencies.
- Raising awareness about issues related to Human Rights. More specifically, the research pavilion will contain an archival data-base with websites, news feeds, short films, photographs, documentaries, social media sources, etc. to raise awareness about global human rights causes and movements. This resource will be available on site and online.
· Permanent exhibition
· Temporary exhibition
· Botanical Garden
Planning Stage
The park is still in the planning phase. We will soon register as a non-profit society to administer the planning and development of the Park. We will share the park concept with such potential cities as Burnaby, Coquitlam and New Westminster, as well as with the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Board. We envisage a Human Rights Park located in the Metro Vancouver area will serve as an outdoor companion to the Human Rights Museum located in Winnipeg.
Human Rights Park Society
The human rights park society is under registration as a Federal Society. We will work on registering it as a charity soon.
Founding Directors:
· Fred Soofi
· Gaetan Royer
· Hazel Postma
· Melissa Chaun
· Soudeh Jamshidian
The Art pieces
Art competitions will be held for honoring various causes and activists. The pieces will be chosen at the end of the competition and will be delivered to Vancouver through the embassies if needed.
The arrangements will be made for each piece separately and we are planning fundraisers for each one of them if needed.
Deciding on the causes and activists
The decision will be made by the board of directors and the partners (i.e. Amnesty). We will learn from other agencies, such as the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, where Boards have developed criteria for selecting exhibits.
Finances:
The society received seed funding through Fred Soofi. We are planning to register a charity and raise funds through the charity. We will have individual fundraising events for each piece. We are hoping to get support for park maintenance from the host City.
We will also apply for grants through foundations.