Westford Students Aim to Improve Haiti Through Art

In 2011, the impact of a devastating earthquake in Haiti led a group of Westford students to help bring hope to those affected through the power of art. Today, memories of that tragedy have begun to fade, but those students are looking to return and help some more.

Led by Westford photographer Barb Peacock, four Westford Academy students will join with a group known as the Nightingale Project: a travelling art and photography school aiming to empower underprivileged children across the world.

“In art there is peace,” said Peacock.

“There’s probably little difference from 2011,” he said. “There will probably never be running water. The infrastructure has been destroyed across the country. We can’t rebuild the infrastructure in Haiti, but this is what we can do: inspire people who want to be photographers and artists.”

For Noran, the main goals are not just to share what he and his fellow students and adult artists know, but also share and give art supplies those in Haiti may never obtain otherwise. And in return, he and his comrades from Westford gain a broader understanding of the world beyond Massachusetts.

Cam Peacock, Barb’s son, still remembers his trip to Haiti in 2011.

“Almost immediately walking off the plane, I was getting into a car when a kid waved at me and held out his hands asking for change,” he said. “I said I couldn’t give anything and then he started to point toward my jacket asking for that. That experience, all of the things we take for granted, that stuck with me.”

Peacock will join fellow students Lena Mirasola, Catie Martin and Chris Noran on the trip. 

More information on the Nightingale Project is available on the project’s website.