The Institute's Management Team and Mission

The Amazon Basin Institute Basin for
the Indigenous Arts
Background – The Amazon Basin Institute for the Indigenous Arts was established in 2006 by a group of Peruvians residing in Iquitos, Peru and Dr. Douglass G. Norvell, who was a Fulbright Senior Specialist. The Peruvians are professors at the Victor Morey School of Bellas Artes, managers from the Iquitos hospitality industry and an assistant federal prosecutor.
Mission – The mission of the Amazon Institute is to support the arts (broadly defined), in the Upper Amazon Basin that lies mostly within Peru.
Activites – For the past three years, the Amazon Institute’s good works have focused on the Victor Morey School of Fine Arts in Iquitos. The school teaches young Peruvians to paint, sculpt and print. Many of the students come from villages deep in the rain forest, where their families share meager incomes. In past years, as many as fifty percent of the students return to villages for lack of money for room, board and art supplies.
During the last three years, the Amazon Institute supplied a handful of students with materials, and built a new roof for a classroom that was unusable during the rainy season.
In the future, the Amazon Institute hopes to move further into areas that will generate sustainable incomes for the people of the rainforest.
Location
Call it an innovation or simply strange, but the Amazon Institute has no physical location, existing only in cyberspace and the computer files of two banks, one in Colusa, Illinois and the other in Iquitos, Peru. No physical location means no costs, and no costs means that a dollar in is a dollar out. Give a dollar and it goes right into the Iquitos account and on to a deserving student.
Officers
Left to right: Henry Zagacetas (President), Carolina (Model), and Cliver Flores Lanza (Vice-President).

Douglass G. Norvell, Ph.D.
Executive Director

and

Ciro Manuel Moron Perez
Treasurer