
Base Paint Tents for Haiti Classrooms
“A gift of painted tents… Each tent, a mobile port for learning – BASE PAINT is a utilitarian installation of goodwill for the children of Port-au-Prince from the artists of the world, playing literally on the concept of base paint: A core to build upon, an educational facility pigmented with the components of creativity, scholarship and care.
Base – the home, the core, the classroom, schooling.
Paint – the pigments, the edifying components of an education to achieve independence.
BASE PAINT – an artist’s metaphor: A portable gift of education for the children.”

Antuan, in collaboration with Fundacion Manos del Sur and Step by Step Foundation, based on an idea by Zelmira Rizo Patron, created a humanitarian art project: an art installation of painted tents, with the children of Haiti in mind. This project is a wonderful collaboration of international artists and organizations to support the education of children and uplift the spirit of the people of Haiti. The selected artists contributed their own perspective of Haiti, using the tents as their canvas.
Armbruster was brought in as the tentmaker for this project. As America’s oldest tentmaker, Armbruster has manufactured tents for the Red Cross and US military during WWI and was the producer of canvas military tents for US soldiers during WWII. An environmentally friendly company, it has developed into one of the highest quality tent and fabric structure manufacturers in the world.





You can see videos of the tents being painted or to learn more about the project visit basepaint.org. For more on Armbruster and our disaster relief projects visit our website or contact us.