Latinos Receive First Peace Prizes For Arts & Culture.

A Venezuelan music educator and a Brazilian nongovernmental organization received the first WCO Awards: Peace Prize for Arts and Culture presented by the World Culture Open tonight at a ceremony in Lincoln Center.

The awards were given to Brazil’s Orcamento Participativo for Humanitarian Service and Dr. Antonio Jose Abreu of Venezuela received the prize for Creative Arts tonight. The winners receive US$100,000 for their work promoting peace and reconciliation through arts and culture. The award winners were selected from nominees from around the globe.

In response to the growing divide between people of different cultures and societies since Sept. 11, World Culture Open began a campaign to increase the sharing of arts and culture between nations and societies.

“Sharing art and culture is a central pillar of the peace process,” said Michael Shank, a spokesman for World Culture Open. “The reality is that there is more that unites us in our culture than divides us. We hope that through these awards, we can remind people that while we speak hundreds of languages around the world, we all share a universal language of art and culture.” Dr. Abreu received the Creative Arts award for his work with the National Symphony Youth Orchestra, which has given hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan children of low-income families access to music and education that improves
their lives. His efforts have inspired similar initiatives in other Latin American countries.

Orcamento Participativo received the Humanitarian Service award, as a non-profit that seeks to end the marginalization of parts of the Brazilian population, allowing the voices of “vulnerable social sectors” to be heard by government. Orcamento Participativo has helped a youth-adolescent sector win its own representation in the government, enabling the students to take part in assemblies and elections.

The twelve finalists for the awards were from around the world, including NYC’s The Boys Choir of Harlem, Eloxochitl Ivonne M. Buendia Sanchez (Mexico), Casa Alianza (Central America), and Grupo de Teatro Catalinas Sur (Argentina).

For more information at http://www.worldcultureopen2004.org/