On August 24th Human Connection Arts will organize the Bodypainting Day sponsored by Mehron, in Switzerland. We interviewed Andy Golub, the Executive Director of Human Connection Arts.
Photocredits: Human Connection Arts

On August 24th Human Connection Arts will organize the Bodypainting Day sponsored by Mehron, in Switzerland. We interviewed Andy Golub, the Executive Director of Human Connection Arts.

Can you tell us a little bit more about Human Connection Arts?

Human Connection Arts is a non-profit organization that I started 2 years ago. It’s an outgrowth of my public bodypainting which I’ve been doing since 2007. After winning some legal battles against the NY Police Department for arrests for public bodypainting, other artists were inquiring about working together, so I decided to make a body painting day.
We’ve held this event in NYC, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and this August 24th in Switzerland. Our mission is to build communities of acceptance through large scale public art events.

Human Connection Arts
Andy between two volunteers.
Photocredits: Human Connection Arts

What can we expect in Switzerland?

It’s wonderful to be returning to Europe, adding Zurich to our growing list of cities. Switzerland has a proud history of promoting human rights and body acceptance, making it a great place to host a Bodypainting Day!

Join artists and models from around the world for a day of free artistic expression and human connection through art! Bodypainting Day includes 4 hours of painting followed by a march through the public streets of Zürich.

Don’t miss out on what will be Human Connection Arts’ 15th Bodypainting Day! After hosting Bodypainting Days in New York City, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Brussels and Berlin! We are proud to add the great city of Zürich to this distinguished list.

You organized a colurful protest at last pride in New York City. Are you satisfied?

It went great. We had over 60 protesters get completely nude and march down the public streets of NYC for 20 blocks, promoting and singing songs of human unity.

We rented a large space at Pridefest to create some live body painting. We also brought our “Freedom Van” to the event and painted people on the roof. As always it was a lot of fun and very popular. I believe deeply in celebrating acceptance of all people, including gay or strait, sis or transgender, etc.

How did you come up with the idea of such a colorful protest?

The message behind my art has always been about being true to yourself, believing in yourself and following you dreams. Working with large groups of models in all their diversity showed how we’re all the same, even when we’re different. Our differences don’t have to define us.

I was disappointed to see that several of my longtime models were posting very intolerant posts on social media. I feel that when we disagree, we should not insult each other or talk over each other. We should express our point of view and truly listen to other points of view.

That is the only way we can hope to impact those on the other side of any issue. I felt that everyone (mostly) would be in favor of unity and it was a good starting point in creating acceptance and dialogue.

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