Exhibit at Brooklyn’s Photoville

Exhibit at Brooklyn’s Photoville


Blue Chip Foundation

September 24, 2017


Blue Chip Foundation Exhibit, the Millennium Villages Project, at Brooklyn's Photoville

Brooklyn—The Blue Chip Foundation and founder Jennifer Gross supported and produced the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) at Brooklyn’s annual Photoville event, an immersive photography village in DUMBO’s Brooklyn Bridge Park. The event, which transformed more than 55 shipping containers into awe-inspiring galleries teeming with photos from all over the world—and covering fascinating subjects—lasted 11 days and attracted thousands of visitors.


The Blue Chip Foundation’s exhibit, the Millennium Villages Project, documented the 10-year project spearheaded by economist Jeffrey Sachs in 10 African countries. Photos, taken by four photographers from VII Association (an independent, charitable media and education nonprofit) depicted participants from Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal engaged in a wide range of experiences, including everyday challenges and remarkable success stories. Designed to show that ending extreme poverty—one of Blue Chip Foundation’s primary goals—is an attainable goal, the Millennium Villages Project is a spectacular display of life in Sub-Saharan Africa.


“My goal as a visual storyteller is to reach the audience with my work. The partnership with Blue Chip Foundation enabled the work documenting the progress of the Millennium Village Project to be seen by over 90,000 people at the recent Photoville Exhibitions in New York,” says VII photographer Ron Haviv.  


The photos were on display in Brooklyn Bridge Park between September 13 and September 24, featuring original photography by Ron Haviv, founder of VII Foundation, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Gary Knight and Ed Kashi. 


“The photographers of the VII Foundation were able to give personalized tours to school children from New York City to add a dimension to the images seen both in film and on the wall. One student wrote, ‘Together, these sections are seen through photos, along with video, to make a touching exhibit. It’s an eye-opening example of the current state of parts of the African continent,’” says Haviv. 


"Meeting local students on education day was a highlight at Photoville not just because we had a chance to inform young people about MVP's work to end poverty, but also because that interaction may have sparked the drive to be the next generation's economists, journalists, activists or politicians fighting to make our collective world a better place,” says VII photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier.


Education Day is a unique art education initiative designed to give local middle school and high school students a learning opportunity at Photoville. The experience was so successful that Blue Chip Foundation and VII Foundation have decided to launch a tour of the exhibition to high schools in 2018. The photos will be accompanied by a short curriculum on the Sustainable Development Goals


“It’s imperative that we teach the next generation to be actively involved in sustainable development. It’s indifference that we have to battle moving forward in the fight against extreme poverty,” says Gross. “Each of the photos’ subjects contributed so much to furthering our organization’s goals; when people see the challenges of living in extreme poverty, and even more so when they see that extreme poverty can be overcome, we’re able to raise awareness and inspire more people to action and do what they can to help.”


About Blue Chip Foundation

Blue Chip Foundation, a founding member of Ethics in Action, works to alleviate extreme poverty in all of its forms through achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Gallery Images

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