Jacques Eugene Croix des Bouquet Haiti

The Ingenuity of Repurposing Metal into Art

Two years ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Haiti as part of a program to view Macy’s Heart of Haiti products and meet the artisans behind the beautiful art. It was an incredible trip in many ways as it opened my heart and mind to a different side of Haiti that is often not discussed in the press. Instead of seeing tragedy, hardship and destruction I saw amazing resilience, hope and creativity through the arts. While many challenges remain for the people of Haiti – it still is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere – there also lies opportunity and beauty especially through its vibrant, dynamic arts much that is made from repurposed materials that would otherwise send up in the trash.

One such community that is ingeniously using scraps of metal to create beautiful works of art is Croix-des-Bouquet a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Over 60 years ago, Georges Liautaud began a movement in creating metal art from recycled products that became the thriving metal artisan community of Croix-des-Bouquet.

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Today, Croix-des-Bouquet has over 1,000 metal artisans making their fabulous metal art with over 60 different shops and studios creating social change and opportunity in this growing community in Port-au-Prince. Croix-des-Bouquet is where the most famous, accomplished metal artisans reside who have traveled the world with their art and have become instrumental within the community by creating apprenticeship opportunities for Haitians to learn their trade.

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Jacques Eugene Croix des Bouquet Haiti

Haiti’s Metal Artisans of Croix-des-Bouquets

This post is part of a series on my recent trip to Haiti as part of Heart of Haiti’s #Bloggers4Haiti trip. To read more in this series, click here. 

After we landed in Port-au-Prince on a Thursday afternoon, our team of three bloggers, one daughter, and three representatives from Everywhere Agency (who sponsored our trip and works exclusively on the Heart of Haiti initiative for Macy’s) gathered in our van and drove to neighboring Croix-des-Bouquets,a famous artist community in Port-au-Prince known for its metal art.

We were thrilled to all be spending the next four days meeting with Macy’s Heart of Haiti artisans, and there couldn’t have been a better way to jump-start our trip than by visiting Croix-des-Bouquets and seeing for ourselves what Haiti is known for: Spectacular metal art.

In Croix-des-Bouquets, we were going to visit several metal artisans’ studios and get a real live demonstration on how the art is made. We also would learn a bit more about the history of Croix-des-Bouquets, a unique artist community that has grown into one of the largest, sustainable metal art communities in Haiti.

Croix-des-Bouquet

En route from Port-au-Prince we finally reach the famous Croix-des-Bouquets community.

Over 60 years ago, Georges Liautaud began a movement in creating metal art from recycled products that became the thriving metal artisan community of Croix-des-Bouquets. Today, Croix-des-Bouquets has over 1,000 metal artisans making their fabulous metal art with over 60 different shops and studios creating social change and opportunity in this growing community in Port-au-Prince. Croix-des-Bouquets is where the most famous, accomplished metal artisans reside who have traveled the world with their art and have become instrumental within the community by creating apprenticeship opportunities for Haitians to learn their trade.

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