Elementary students from a school in the rural countryside outside Taipei, Taiwan ROC.

The Global Art Project home office has received thousands of letters from participants and groups sharing the experiences they had while participating in the Global Art Project. Here are just a few excerpts from the letters they sent:

"Participating in this project has been extremely rewarding and empowering. Just the thought of artists all over the world displaying their projects for one cause at the same time is very exciting, but for me the most important aspect has been the affirmation that each of us has the ability not only to express our personal vision, but also to help others see a vision of a better world. "

Penelope Boyd
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada

"What a beautiful idea!! I, too, believe that art is the best way to 'save the world' because art is the language of the soul. It transcends the reach of ordinary language to inspire and uplift the souls of others."

Lori Erickson
Minneapolis, MN

"I was excited to read about your Global Art Project. I am an art student and mother of three boys living in Las Vegas. I am concerned for my children's future. I would like to participate in the project to teach my sons that they can take steps to make their world a better place."

Karen Deveraux
Las Vegas, NV

"My sons, David (9) and Aaron (5), and I intend to do a project based upon the lives of children in a peaceful world. Thanks for this opportunity."

Charles Miles
Auburn, CA

"I am a citizen of the world and as an artist I reflect my being through my art work. The Global Art Project gave me the opportunity to integrate and create with people of many nationalities, religions and backgrounds, sharing all one and the same goal -- hope for unity. Let the unity begin with each one of us."

Dvora Weisz
Bangkok, Thailand

"This project has struck a cord with me as I am returning to school to get my teaching credentials in Art, which knows no cultural bounds. The Art classroom is the perfect place to promote a global community because children can be exposed to so many different cultures and see the good works to come out of all of us. I am enclosing a classroom lesson plan for a unit of study that I developed and will definitely use, centered on the Project.

Anna Keene
Pomerene, AZ

"What a great solution! The Global Art Project is one of the most perfect and powerful movements today. Our thoughts, our expressions, our reaching out, our energies... these change the world."

Gavra Lynn
Arden, NC

"I've been extremely fascinated with the concept of creating a vision of global unity and having it join thousands of other works circling the world. There's so much power in the energy of positive intent!"

Carolyn Harasin
Santa Rosa, CA

"As important as breaking the walls of separation between peoples, finding our individual voices and having the guts to own up to our talents without judging them out of existence is equally of benefit to global unity."

Terry Lee Getz
St. Petersburg, FL

"I am an amateur artist who came out of moth balls to do a piece for this very wonderful project. When I read about the Global Art Project, a vision flashed in my mind as revelation-inspiration. At age 50, I offer 'Unity One Source', for the people of the world."

Charles Edward Collier
Wilmington, NC

"I am Polish photographer and I have been living in U.S.A. for last 10 years. I am very glad I had a chance to participate in this project. As an artist I will do everything to spread creative and positive energy around the world."

Eva Czarnecki
Omaha, NE

"I would like to participate in the Global Art Project. I know the effects energy can have on individuals as well as on the planet. Your vision resonated with my own and I instantly got a picture of what a unified community might look like. I am in the process of sketching it out for the painting."

Lee Ann Smith
Hickory Hills, IL

"I am sending you our application on behalf of our two youth groups. I'm excited to be a part of this wonderful project, and know it will be a great impact on all who come in contact with it!"

Jasmine Shannon-Walcott
United Life Church
Oklahoma City, OK

"I believe that what you are doing is very exciting and will move people in ways large, small and unpredictable."

Phil Catalfo
Berkeley, CA

"This is a truly exciting project. It's almost too large to envision. Good luck!"

Celeste

"Sounds like a wonderful project. I can't wait to get started."

Tara
Dickinson, FL

"What a wonderful experience this has been! I participated in the 1996 Global Art Project with my mother and my two daughters -- each of us exchanging art with our own individual 'matches'. Needless to say, this has been a rewarding experience for all of us, and we are all looking forward to the next Global Art Project in 1998."

Robin Youman
McLean, VA

"I was personally led down a number of newly-explored paths while doing this project that would be a letter in itself. I think given this idea, it woke up some thoughts about world unity, and forced me to process some deeper thinking on what can heal and transform."

Valerie Debrule
Newport, RI

"My intention was to convey the concept that we are all 'One' no matter how diverse; and that the hope of the world starts as an individual shift of consciousness in each of us."

Maggie Stevens-Huft
Poulsbo, WA

"Creating my small piece gave me a feeling of being connected to all the other people in the world who are also participating. Seeing the works of other people in this area who are participating was exciting."

Judith A. Streiff
Dayton, OH

"I want to thank you for the opportunity to send my Art to someone in a different part of the world. This is definitely a new experience for me. I have surprised myself at how excited I've been about even the most mundane aspects of this process. (I felt like a kid sending off my painting to Taiwan! What an unknown experience!)"

Jo Andersen
Tucson, AZ

"This is a copy of my art for the 1998 Global Art Project. My idea was to create the world where everyone is connected by looking at the same constellations in the sky. I am the one in Arizona with my cat Taco Bob, and my art pal is in Wisconsin. The Japanese calligraphy means 'Peace'."

Angelina Robinson
Prescott, AZ

"My piece is about me dancing, celebrating, honoring the friends in my life. It is about the spirit of connected joy, celebration and reverence for others."

Zella Bardsley
Boise, ID

"I loved doing this project because in everything I do, I like to have some 'meaning'. What better meaning than the unity of this world. I believe that art is one of the most important things in life. We are all creators."

Shelley Ladue
Santa Cruz, CA

"This piece represents the intertwining of spirit, creativity, gift, and connectedness encompassed by the Global Art Project.

Thank you for your efforts in putting this project together. I enjoyed participating in it. It touched a deep place inside of me. The process, especially thinking of ideas -- the period of brainstorming I usually begin with -- coupled with the awareness of just how many other people in the world were also stirring up their creative energy and working towards an outward expression, all at the same time, was truly awe-inspiring."

Janet Finn
Cincinnati, OH

"When I was working on my art called 'Noah's Ark' the thought crossed my mind to unite all artists and creative people by the idea of the mankind destiny and its survival. In all times the artists were always ahead of the time and could predict the course of events that is development of the mankind, its cataclysms and to show the way out from them.

I think we can save the mankind by the spiritual revival of every person and by uniting with the one thought to create original "Noah's Ark'."

Valeri Prikhodko
Minsk, Belarus

"Best greetings from Austria. My English is not very perfect, but I hope you will understand everything I write to you. My friends and me joined the 'Global Art Project' in 1994, and at this time one of my friends, an artist in photography, was also very pleased by the idea of this interesting project and wanted to join it this year. Unfortunately he got very sick and died by cancer in March 95, but I want to fulfill his dream, that some of his photos will be a part of 'Global Art Projekt', giving this special energy of hope and peace around the world."

Babette Spegel
Krems, Austria

"This 'remembering basket' comes with a little history:
The amber colored beads woven into your necklace have a small history. A village in Alaska poor and unable to pay their school teacher offered her beads. Through the years when the people couldn't pay her with money they paid with beads. This was about forty years ago. These beads represent a fortune, a fortune in heart. A circle of giving. Villagers to teacher, teacher to children, children to the world. I look at these little beads, wow, what a contribution. How clear to me that these little beads needed to be in your remembering basket. Thank-you for your contribution to a greater good, thank-you for giving me an outlet of understanding and a chance to contribute to a greater good."

Bernie Van Zoest
Camden, TN

"I am as different from you as the North is from the South, as the Earth is from the Sky, as Fire is from Water, as Summer is from Winter.... Let us celebrate our differences and all the beautiful variety in all the Earth."

Rachel T. Bowers
Hagerstown, MD

"I hope that through my art I can recapture and convey the proud heritage of my Native ancestors."

Lee Claremont
Kelowna, B.C., Canada

"My quilted piece depicts the globe, and the colored bands encircling the globe represent the five races in the world...and the fact that all races overlap and intermingle."

Clealis Young
St. David, AZ

"Our entire family of six participated by creating six individual pieces of art....This project drew us together as a family but also helped us define for ourselves what we each thought global unity meant."

The Zatorski/Puca Family
Tucson, AZ

"I consider the Global Art Project one of the most exciting and worthwhile art projects I've ever participated in."

Rachel Bowers
Hagerstown, MD

"Just wanted to say GAP 1998 was amazing! It is the best thing we do at our school -- Thank You!"

Teacher
Peter Noyes School
Sudbury, MA

"This project gives kids the opportunity to think about world issues -- to think about how they'd like the world, and their future to be."

Eric Gordon, Principal
Peter Noyes School
Sudbury, MA

"I loved the idea of giving a gift from the heart -- and of receiving one too. Giving your art is such a personal gift. It's neat to think of so many people doing the exact same thing at the exact same time -- and of all this artwork circling the globe."

Betsy Allen
Cambridge, MA

"I drew a picture of the earth, and then a bunch of different types of people -- short, tall, white, black -- holding hands around the world. Holding hands is a sign of peace. People can't fight if they're holding hands."

Cullen Beatty, 10
Mrs. Martin's Fourth-Grade Class

"The GAP project is such a great idea -- what a nice way to bring people together. I've always said that our world needs more artists, musicians, and poets. Just think: if our young people would just pick up a paintbrush or pencil instead of a gun -- what a wonderful world this would be. Maybe GAP is the beginning of just such a world. I certainly hope so."

Robin Youman
McLean, VA

"The kids can see from the items they've received -- paintings, autobiographical letters, family pictures -- how willing people are to share their lives, even with strangers, and how much we all have in common."

Peter Noyes School Teacher
Sudbury, MA

"GAP brings together so many valuable skills. Kids are writing, creating artwork, sharing their ideas, and reflecting on how to make a better world. It's also amazing to think that just one person started this. It showed me that one person can change the world."

Betsy Allen
Cambridge, MA

"This project really helps children see themselves as part of a world-wide community"

Patricia Hartvigsen
First-grade Teacher

"It makes kids think about what role they have in establishing peace. GAP has taught them that they can make a difference. Each person can contribute to peace -- it's not just something the leaders of countries are responsible for."

Florence Aldrich-Bennett
Third-grade Teacher

"I'm from Chile, and I was so glad to know that I wasn't the only one who wanted to bring people from different cultures together. I want people to be citizens of the world, and not just of one country."

Ben Halsband

"As grownups, we get so caught up in our own lives. This gives us the opportunity to stop and think about others. Whether we have international partners or not, it has us all thinking in a global way. The more all of us can be reminded of how we fit together in the world -- the better."

Patricia Hartvigsen

"GAP connects people through artwork, and it doesn't matter how old you are. Everyone has some kind of voice -- their art stands out in some way."

Kerry Clerc
First-grade Teacher

"Since I believe that thoughts are real things (energy forms that can be directed to manifestation), I was especially excited by the idea of thousands of people sending messages of peace and unity around the globe at one time. It would have been exciting to be in space and have the ability to view the energy crisscrossing the planet."

Cynthia Beischel
Cincinnati, OH

"You have made a difference in our lives. My children have had some good discussions on unity, peace, freedom, different cultures, and geography. They are so proud of their work and very excited about sending their artwork off. We are having an art show in early April. All the students are participating as well as the community. This has united and involved the entire school and we thank you."

Debra Peters & 700 happy kids
Houston, TX

"This project was about much more than creating an art work. To create the art- work reflecting global unity, first one must feel it in his/her heart. That took the longest for me. Many meditations later my ideas finally gelled."

Linda Yoder
Dayton, OH

"I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to you and the Global Art Project. This has been an absolutely wonderful experience. The project pushed me into doing my first non- commercial work in thirty- five years. It really felt good to do something that came from me and not be the least bit concerned about meeting some one else's needs. I plan to be involved with the project for years to come."
Thanks again.

Ken Smith

"...we are developing the same violence patterns as US school systems, housing projects, etc. That is why I am so happy to try and spread this beautiful vision. I want you to know how honored I am to be included in this endeavor, and how much I value it as a beautiful expression of humanity. Thank you for the inspiration, it is coming RIGHT WHEN I NEED IT MOST...isn't that always the way?"

Anita Shultz
Virgin Islands

"It's such an incredible idea! To promote peace through Art & drop all the politics about making & selling art. A real exchange of beauty! Thank you for your Hand work!"

France Garrido
Weehawken, NJ

"We had such an amazing time participating in the project! The ideas surrounding the project spurred on really interesting discussion among my students and I hope that the project continues for a long time to come!! Thank you for starting such a great connection for the world and for kids!!

Ascha Drake
Rogers Park Montessori School
Chicago, IL

"YES...The Global Art Project is a beautiful idea...and one that should continue in spite of all odds."

Marj Picchi
Lucca, Italy