LWBRefugeeArt

We aim to provide refugees in Greek camps, shelters, and housing communities with a source of emotional expression and economic self-empowerment while giving them a platform to spread awareness of the conditions in which they live and their varied and largely unmet needs. We provide donation-funded art supplies to the refugees–men, women, and children alike–then exhibit and sell the resulting works of art around the world with the help of communities that help to host art shows. We return one hundred percent of the earnings from the sale of refugees’ artwork to the artist who created each piece.

How we got started
In 2015, our founder Kayra Martinez, a flight attendant for United Airlines based in Frankfurt, Germany, heard about the horrible conditions in which asylum seekers were made to live in. She was inspired to leverage her privileged lifestyle to make a difference. She started by organizing collections of needed items like coats and warm clothing in her Frankfurt community, and later decided to volunteer in the refugee camps and housing communities in the north of Greece. It was at the Nea Kavala camp that Kayra had the idea to give the children art supplies so that they could draw and paint.

From the first session Kayra noticed how the creative process seemed to calm the kids, so she began regular art workshops for the children in the tents in the camp. She shared what she was doing with her friends through social media when someone suggested to her that she sell the paintings. Over time, parents joined their children, and Kayra expanded the program to include adults who were interested. She began selling the pieces on behalf of the artists, returning all of the earnings to the individuals that created each piece sold.
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In October of 2017, Kayra registered her operation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States, and with the help of volunteers she met in Greece, began hosting exhibitions of refugee art across the United States, and later, across the world.