Olivia Keith, international artist
Her passion is recording people as they work at jobs tied to the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of a community.
Olivia Keith has a special talent that she shares with communities around the world. She describes what she does as “reportage drawings”. Her passion is recording people as they work at jobs tied to the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of a community.
In December 2014, the Hindi recognized Olivia for recording people on the streets of Kochi. She focused on drawing people at daily chores that have been done for years by those who go unrecognized for their skill and craft.
Fascinated by their handiwork, Olivia has painted artisans in action with her drawings celebrating their skill, craft and a way of life that may soon be extinct. In her work she is illustrating minutes, hours and days, defining her drawing as “an animated film in one frame.”
Olivia is now working to expand her impact.
“Over the past few years I have been looking to find ways of helping charities by making live drawings of their work and then selling or auctioning them to raise funds and/or using the images as publicity. As I learnt more from Armen [Hovsepyan] about the lives of rural women in Shirak, [Armenia] I determined also to share my experience of relief printing with them.”
“I have found that the very process of drawing people, often volunteers, while they are working, is in itself hugely beneficial. It seems that by working alongside them in real time, respecting the work they are doing, raises their self-esteem and pride in the work.“
Adventures in Preservation (AiP) partners with Armen Hovsepyan in Gyumri, Armenia. When we return to Gyumri, May 9–21, 2021, Olivia will be joining AiP and creating new drawings of the village women at work.
Armen explains that in the villages surrounding Gyumri, the 1988 earthquake largely disrupted the agricultural-based economy. Resulting social and economic hardships forced many men to leave in search of better paying jobs abroad. Early marriage and strict traditions place women in lives deprived of social and economic security. They remain in villages struggling to care for the children and maintain the household.
During Adventures in Preservation trips to Armenia, the local excursions take us to several villages to hear stories of women who have found creative and inspirational outlets in the most mundane tasks associated with rural life. Women spend their days caring for cattle, gathering herbs from mountainsides, baking bread, weaving carpets, making clay pots for honey and more.
Entrepreneurial opportunities are being created, such as village cooperatives, where women work together to design, produce, and package locally produced items for sale to tourists. Sales not only boost their self-confidence, but also empower them to develop networking skills for branching out locally, nationally and internationally.
About Adventures in Preservation (AiP)
Adventures in Preservation (AiP) is a non-profit connecting people and preservation through enriching cultural heritage travel and hands-on education. AiP was founded in 2001 by two women with a great love of historic buildings and a strong desire to travel and understand the world. While perusing the travel section of the Boulder Bookstore, the Volunteer Vacation section suddenly brought everything into focus. Judith Broeker and Jamie Donahoe combined their goal of saving historic buildings with the concept of experiential travel, and created AiP’s hands-on preservation vacations.
Work started on several sites in the U.S., and as word spread, requests for help began to pour in from around the world, underscoring the great potential of using volunteers to restore historic buildings. In supporting community-based preservation initiatives, we discovered that our love of old buildings could translate into environmental and economic sustainability for communities.
AiP is picking up the pace! As our hands-on experiential travel becomes more popular, we have new projects, new partners and initiatives to keep you excited and involved.
