Copán Ruinas is a small town in western Honduras, famous for the Maya ruins located nearby in the lush valley of Copán. It’s a pleasant place to stay with many hotels and good restaurants. Most visitors are charmed by the colonial and traditional ambience while enjoying the first class services the town has to offer.

For many visitors it comes as a surprise to hear that Copán Ruinas is one of the poorest municipalities in the country. You don’t have to travel far to see why. Only a few miles out of town, people, many of them belonging to the indigenous Maya Chortí tribe, live under miserable circumstances with incredible high rates of malnutrition and infant mortality. The illiteracy rate is 42% and the children who do attend school learn but the basics of writing and reading.

It is in this town that Copán Pinta, now known as Arte Acción Copán Ruinas, was born in May 1999. A group of painters organized a painting exhibition in the former high school at the central park. It was an event we didn't expect to be too successful, but to our surprise, over eight hundred people visited us during the two weeks of the exhibition and five hundred forty children joined in the art classes we offered. There was obviously a need for such activities, but alas, no funding to continue the program.

Then a small miracle happened: on the last day of the exhibition called Copán Pinta ("Copán paints") we received a $500 dollar donation. Enough to buy some easels, shelves and art supplies. The mayor was so friendly to lend us a classroom in the former high school and that’s how the Copán Pinta art school started. At first we taught formal art classes for which we charged a small tuition to children and adolescents from town. A few months later we started teaching art in eleven Maya Chortí communities to children who had never held a crayon in their hands before. The experience was amazing and inspiring. From that moment on, Copán Pinta shifted its goal from teaching formal art forms to a more socio-cultural program for the children who need it most.

Soon we didn’t teach just art but also drama, literature and workshops about the environment, social issues and children's rights, using a variety of disciplines and techniques. The program grew, as did the number of participants and Copán Pinta became an important institution in town, promoting the arts and the active participation of children in their community without ever charging our students.

In January 2002, Copán Pinta had to make way for a souvenir market in the former high school, so we moved to La Casa de Todo, only a block away from the central park. The new headquarters, located within a compound that houses a souvenir store, internet café and coffee shop, had it advantages: there is a huge backyard that was soon turned into a playground, with a small pool. There was enough space left over for a gazebo where we teach our classes and even a spot for a children's vegetable garden.

In 2005, Copán Pinta joined the cultural association Arte Acción from Tegucigalpa. The founders of this organization have been friends and supporters of Copán Pinta since the beginning and whenever possible we’ve been working together. The reason for the official fusion is the legalization of the project under Honduran law (in order to grow and expand) and to improve the exchange in artists and programs. So far the partnership has been very inspiring and will lead to many new projects and perspectives.

In September of 2005 we inaugurated our new office, just across the street from La Casa de Todo. Besides our library, administration department and meeting space, the office also had enough space for a small gallery, a video edit room, a dark room and a room for volunteers.

In January of 2008 we moved yet again, although not far. We left our beautiful playground at La Casa de Todo and took over both floors of our actual office. The reason? The gazebo at La Casa de Todo had become too small and insufficient for our many students and activities. We needed more proper workspace with real walls and doors that can be locked. Now we have everything together under one roof, including a small store where we sell our products that helps us to be more self-sustainable. The weekly Saturday workshops were conducted in the central park until July of 2008 when we stopped the project and instead stared offering art classes for a small group of girls in our library. Most of our classes are being taught at the rural schools, but our office is the heart of the organization where our staff members prepare and evaluate their workshops.

Although we’re still happy with our office and headquarters, our dream is to get our own place just outside of town that will include a stage, dorms, an office and rooms for volunteers. It will be a true cultural centre with enough space for multiple workshops, sport events, camps and exchanges with artists from all over the world. All buildings and facilities will be made of recycled materials and proper use of natural resources. An Eco-Art Centre! That’s still a dream, but to believe in dreams is exactly what we teach our students, so we keep on dreaming as well!