Gates Foundation Visitor Center

3/28/14 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s goal is to battle “extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries, and the failures of America’s education system.” I got a small glimpse of the immensity of those challenges when I visited the foundation’s visitor center today with the Friday sketchers. I saw many interactive multimedia exhibits of the programs and innovative ideas that the foundation is helping to fund toward meeting its goal.

The center engages visitors by making them aware of life in other parts of the world where people don’t have easy access to basic life essentials like clean drinking water. Even a trip to the restroom made me aware (through a sign in my stall and images on the walls) that I can’t take for granted the luxury of a flushing toilet.

I got so distracted by the exhibits that I hardly got around to sketching. When I finally did, I first sketched a chlorine dispenser, which is used in Kenya, Haiti, Somalia and other countries to disinfect the drinking water. More than 8,000 of these dispensers are currently in use worldwide.

3/28/14 Private Reserve Velvet Black and
Diamine Grey inks

My second sketch was of a foot-operated water pump, similar in mechanism to a treadmill, that is used by farmers.

Another distraction, though a good one, was discovering that my cousin Shaun works at the visitor center! I hadn’t seen him in ages. We had fun taking our photo together and putting it into a digital display in one of the exhibit rooms.

My cousin Shaun silhoutted against the photo of us on a digital display.

The sloppy-wet day kept a lot of sketchers away! Ann, Tina and Nancy sharing sketches.
(Not pictured are Natalie and Chris, who left early)