Mayan Art (MAP):

Developing creativity through mind, body and spirit.
AMA’s Mayan Art Program (MAP) uses visual and musical arts to promote the learning and appreciation of Mayan cosmology, gender equality, environmental awareness and cultural pride among adults and children alike.
MAP was created as a part of the educational component of A.M.A., designed to teach abstract lessons and carry-out well-defined projects with enough flexibility to allow youth to better express their thoughts, feelings and emotions.

MAP is a constructive response to the weaknesses of the current education system in Guatemala, which was founded in an authoritative spirit and therefore has students memorize and repeat facts like caged parakeets. It is also a system based on a closed-minded way of thinking in terms of correct vs. incorrect, and, as a result, limits personal growth and self-actualization.

Objetives of MAP:

• Make opportunities available to indigenous communities so that they can achieve personal and social stability.
• Use the power of art to create new understandings and expressive abilities.
• Use art to promote cooperation, discipline, responsibility, creativity and cultural exploration.

MAP in the schools:

Anaby Colop (Mayan Art Teacher):
MAP comes to the schools and women’s circles via Anaby, an American volunteer named Sharon Wherland, and groups of short term volunteer students from Richmond, Virginia, who organize painting and drawing lessons, recycled art projects, murals with cultural motifs and other recreational activities.

Volunteers working with MAP:

In 2006, the first MAP program began in Chuicavioc, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, CentroAmerica:

The best place to gather community members is the school. MAP organizes kids, parents and teachers to achieve a sense of belonging. We believe that it is necessary for parents to become more involved in their children’s education and also realize that they themselves are their own best resource.