La 8ème édition de Arteaméricas célebre les espoirs des artistes haïtiens de reconstruire le pays et sa culture.

Artist Marie-Thérèse ``Marithou'' Dupoux, had just fired the kiln in her studio near Pétionville when she felt the floor undulate and heard the roof rattle. Clinging to a column, she watched the kiln's flames wobble and everything around her bounce, and then the propane tank fell.

``I knew right away it was an earthquake,'' Marithou says.

Her ceramics and most of her studio and equipment were ground to rubble on Jan. 12, but a few paintings and sculptures had been stored at a Miami gallery and will be exhibited at a Haiti Pavilion at arteaméricas, the Latin American art fair that opens to the public Friday at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Arteaméricas organizers Leslie Pantín Jr. and Emilio Calleja have donated the 30-foot-long booth in which the works of Marithou and 14 other artists who live and work in Haiti will be exhibited and sold to raise money to help rebuild their homeland's arts community.

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