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When the devastating quake struck Haiti, Long Beach artists felt moved to help. Dozens of artists, and a long list of organizations, put their collective heads together and conceived of a celebratory, multi-disciplinary arts festival: Carnival Del Corazon.

The family friendly fundraiser takes place this Sunday from 4-9 PM, and is being hosted by the Hancock University Art & Design Center, located at 1638 Long Beach Blvd. The Cellar, located at 201 East Broadway, is hosting a music show that runs from 9 PM - 1 AM. All money collected will be donated to Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Chris Strong, founder of St. Art Clothing, stepped up and offered to help organize an art auction for the event. He shared his insights into the development and evolution of the event,

Chris: Carnival Del Corazon is an artist response to the devastation that happened in Haiti. We thought it would be a great way for us, as artists, to help out those in need. The festival includes an art show and silent auction. There will be live music, poets, street performers, a yoga demonstration, and food.

Sander: How did the event coalesce?

Chris: I wanted to find a way to help out the people in Haiti. I thought a great way to do that is to call upon my fellow artists and have an art show where the money raised would go to a charity. I got in touch with Tanya Quinn from LB Creative and it just so happened that they were looking to do something to raise money for Haiti as well. We starting collaborating our ideas and came up with 'Carnival Del Corazon - my h(ART) goes out to Haiti'. We both knew this would be a great event and, [after] talking to our family and friends, we had many great people from Long Beach wanting to help out.

Sander: You've involved lots of groups and organizations. Can you talk about them a bit, and what they've contributed to the process?

Chris: First we couldn't have done it without our event host, Hancock University. Hancock University is a multipurpose educational institution that offers undergraduate and graduate education in business and ESL.

LBCreative! is a collaboration of local artists and organizations working together to strengthen the arts and culture in our community. They identify the needs of our creative community, cultivate opportunities and implement solutions to meet those needs. Through strategic outreach, building relationships and development of project driven action teams they connect, empower and inspire the community at large.

Catalyst Community is a non-profit organization based in Long Beach, CA. Their mission is to provide tools for individuals and organizations that empower them to connect around shared interests and affect the broader community. They establish new communities any place a local leader works to catalyze a fragmented community toward a common vision.

There is also my organization, which is called St. Art. St. Art is a group of artists that create art so that we can give back to those in need. We host Art Shows and Festivals to raise money for our community, for art programs and to raise awareness for our causes. "Art is our passion, community is our cause." There are so many groups that are helping out and that is what we love about what we do.

Sander: Can you talk a bit about how individual artists have participated, via the auction, the CDs, etc?

Chris: I think it's amazing that each individual artist is contributing their work and time to this event. We have artists from all over Long Beach and surrounding are that are donating their photography, paintings, drawings and more to this event. Each piece will be hung in the art gallery and will be sold by silent auction. If artist want to contribute work they can drop it off on Saturday at Hancock University.

We also asked local bands to contribute a song that represented love, hope and Haiti so that we could build a compilation of amazing music inspired for this event. Each CD case is individually designed by artists to be unique. A few of these bands will be playing at our evening event at The Cellar in downtown.

Sander: Let's talk for a moment about the evening component of the event. What's happening at The Cellar?

Chris: The evening show will be amazing. We will have live artists painting at the day event and those pieces will be auctioned off at The Cellar. We will also be having over 10 musical performances for the evening event. We are excited to have such groups as The Vespertines, Eugene & the 1914 and The Lyrics Game. The support from all the artists have been overwhelming and humble. St.Art and all the organizations are looking forward to seeing the rest of the community at this event. Carnival Del Corazon is a family event and we want to make sure that everyone can come out and enjoy the day.

Sander: Ok, so let's talk about results. Aside from the obvious benefits of community-building, are there specific financial goals you've set for the event?

Chris: Well we don't have a goal in regards to the amount of money we raise. Our goal wasn't to set a dollar amount. Our goal was to reach out to our community for support for the arts and for Haiti. Everyone has a different motivation in life. Yes, the idea is to raise money but it is also to support.

Every dollar that is raised goes to Yele Haiti. Yele Haiti's mission is to reinforce projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development. Very similar to mission and ideas that all of the organizations contributing on Sunday.

The idea is that the more we get the community involved in this event the more we are able to give to Haiti.

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Complete details about the event can be found at lbcreative.homestead.com.

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