ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In the summer of 2006, John O'Brien, director of the Brewery Project, generously invited HAUS to curate an exhibition in that space. Since our inaugural exhibition, "OPEN HAUS," was successful in raising funds for Pasadena's Union Station Foundation, we saw this as an opportunity to aid in a current world crisis.

The HAUSGUESTS exhibition was an event both to highlight the quantity and diversity of artists in the Los Angeles area AND to benefit the Darfur region of Sudan. HAUS donated all profit from its 50% sales commissions from this event to SaveDarfur.org. In addition, each artist participating in this exhibition received, compliments of HAUS, a wristband which, it is hoped, furthers awareness and education efforts by stimulating conversation on the Darfur crisis. (Since we believe artists are all-too-frequently asked to donate their work for worthy causes, any artists’ donations from this event were entirely voluntary. Nevertheless, most artists donated either all or a part of their proceeds as well.)

According to the SaveDarfur website (www.SaveDarfur.org), “Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed, more than two million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter … António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as ‘the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.’”

Not wanting to limit the work exhibited, we decided to "tie" the work together by title only. Hence, the “guests” in HAUSGUESTS were not just the visitors to the gallery, but also the exhibited artworks themselves, titled with the name of a real or imaginary person. And since a diverse group of artists was invited to participate in this exhibition, a wide variety of “guests” was exhibited. Most work was wall-mounted and did not exceed 24" x 24" in size.

We appreciate the opportunity to aid in the Darfur crisis and thank all the artists, volunteers and collectors who helped to make this such a successful event.