On Saturday, March 16 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Pavillon de la Ville, the Pointe-à-Pitre Soroptimist Club (Guadeloupe), chaired by Josy-Anne Del Vecchio, organized its first “Salon Talents Soroptimist”. This exhibition and sale gathered several members devoted to various activities such as painting on canvas, porcelain and glass, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry making, sewing, cooking, growing of plants etc.
The members of the Pointe-à-Pitre Soroptimist Club decided to celebrate, this Saturday March 16, the International Women’s Day of March 8. This first Salon Talents Soroptimist (Soroptimist Talent Show) which took place in a very warm and friendly atmosphere was also organized as part of the events planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this Soroptimist Club, founded on June 1st ,1969. Almost all club members – ladies, in this case – wore a beautiful white embroidered dress or sometimes white trousers, with a pretty colorful scarf and grinned to receive the visitors who came to meet them. Several stands were arranged inside the Pavillon de la Ville and presented the various activities in which these women excel (patchwork; painting on canvas; painting on porcelain; painting on glass; sculpture; ceramics; sewing; jewelry making; hat making etc.). In the garden, other talented women were in stands of culinary dishes, cakes and drinks or in a stand of green plants and tropical flowers.
Women with various talents
Among these women who came to show their artistic and manual talents were: Mylène Grillon who is the founder of the first association dedicated to patchwork in Guadeloupe which now has thirty members, one of her works recently won the 4th prize in an important salon in France ; Catherine Debedde, an artist specialized in porcelain painting, who exhibited some of her many creations such as beautifully decorated cups, saucers, teapots and bottles bent into a kiln ; Roberte Isidore, a painter who likes to represent nature, her work entitled “Raisins de Mer revisités” was also used to illustrate the flyer of the event ; Katia Gonzalez Salazar, Cuban sculptor and ceramist we introduced to you in a previous article and who displayed her terracotta creations (censers, pitchers, bowls, flowerpots, mini sculptures etc.); Jocelyne Hatchi who made table linen including pretty mini aprons made of madras fabric or floral fabric to dress bottles ;
Marie-Laure Leborgne from Lorli Créations who exhibited handcrafted jewelery (earrings, necklaces), fashion accessories (bags, hats etc.), modern and ethnic clothes made with madras fabric, African wax or recycled jeans; Neïma Gatibelza who, after working in medical and educational fields, decided to start a career in pottery by recently creating her company “Gwadeloup Céramik Art” and presented masks for jewelry and drums for pencils; Sylvie Adélaïde, the visual artist who manages the Odyssée gallery-workshop in Pointe-à-Pitre, who introduced the public to Creole signs of the zodiac with illustrated postcards she made. Micheline Selbonne, an artist who came to show her representational paintings, she will exhibit at the Pavillon de la Ville next may ; and many other women…
3 000 clubs in the world
This first edition of the Salon Talents Soroptimist launched by the Pointe-à-Pitre Soroptimist Club allowed these women to introduce themselves, extend their network, promote the know-how but also sell their production to visitors, many of whom were also women.
The International Soroptimist (IS) – a non-governmental organization (NGO) – brings together women engaged in professional and social life. It promotes human rights for everyone, women status, education, equality, development, peace. It has a permanent consultative status in several international organizations (UNO, UNESCO, UNICEF). The 75,000 women who belong of the 3 000 Soroptimist clubs set up in 123 countries work, every year, on more than 4 000 projects. On French territory, there are 119 clubs gathering 2 700 women. The IS collects 7 million euros every year to help a million women and children all over the world.
