ROSS BLECKNER SERVES AS UN GOODWILL AMBASSADOR

Artnet reports that artist Ross Bleckner has been serving as a UN Goodwill Ambassador—specifically, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking. At the beginning of the year, Bleckner went with the UN on an official mission to Gulu, Uganda, which has in recent years been plagued by rebel groups that abduct, recruit, and conscript children as soldiers or sexual slaves. There, Bleckner assisted in the rehabilitation of former child soldiers and abducted girls through art therapy.

Bleckner’s official induction ceremony at the UN on May 12 also serves as an opening, “Welcome to Gulu,” an exhibition of two hundred paintings made by children from Gulu. Proceeds from the sale of works in the exhibition, as well as portraits taken by Bleckner, benefit Gulu children. Following the opening at the UN, some of the artworks are to be displayed at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea.