Gallery Visio: Thursday, 3 December 2009

A public reception will begin at 4 p.m. Dec. 3 in Gallery Visio. Normal gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. On view December 3 through 17.

"Kids with Cameras" will feature photographs taken by children of the Macaldeniya School in Sri Lanka. All pieces on exhibit will be for sale with all proceeds going to fund the UMSL Sri Lankan Educational Fund. Through the university's Operation Teardrop Campaign, the fund is used to improve educational opportunities for children at Macaldeniya Tamil Vidyalayam, a primary school on a remote, impoverished tea estate, where tea is grown and harvested, in the central hills of Sri Lanka.

Jody Miller, professor of criminology and criminal justice at UMSL and organizer of the Operation Teardrop Campaign, traveled to the estate over the summer armed with five digital cameras for the children to record what they value most. The resulting photographs are a visual diary of a day in the children's lives.

Also during the exhibition, the photo book "Tea and Me" will be available for $20. Funds raised from book sales will be used to start a vocational training center on the estate to provide young people with new employment opportunities beyond estate labor.

Gallery Visio (170 Millennium Student Center)
University of Missouri-St. Louis
One University Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63121
314-516-7922
http://www.umsl.edu/~galvisi