Summer, children and art: Amira El-Noshokaty and Ghada Abd El-Kader attend institutional variations on a theme, while Salonaz Sami rediscovers the meaning of the beach Fair concept The second round of the annual NGO Summer Festival -- and the slogan was "A Real Vacation". I could use one, I thought. At the Al-Sawy Culture Wheel in Zamalek, numerous NGO representatives had gathered offering voluntary activities, courses and workshops with the idea of helping young people aged 16 and older spend the most rewarding summer vacation possible. And unlike last year's one- day event, this year's two-day bonanza focussed on ideas -- so much so that the 30 best ideas for a meaningful summer were to receive a free sojourn in Sharm El-Sheikh. Activity booths stood side by side with social service packages. For Abdel-Wanis Seif, a sales representative and Al-Sawy regular, the event is "a nice idea -- the first of its kind to bring major issues like environment and illiteracy into focus", but ought to be better marketed. "I've just come across medical caravans targeting diabetics in Oseim, Giza, where I live. They helped some 230 people apparently, but I know there must be dozens others who need the service and are unaware of it. So I'll spread the word. Maybe I'll help transport medication too." Organised by Development Without Borders (DWB) in collaboration with the National Youth Council, the event, according to the Meshwar NGO's Heba Mustafa, did require a more effective marketing strategy since many more people might have attended the fair. Indeed this summer innovative ideas were prioritised above all else, and e-mails were rather more frequent than attendance. "Some 6,000 people visited the website in one and a half months," DWB board member Ahmed Gamal noted. "We had to choose 30 out of 270 ideas, based on criteria like uniqueness and applicability. What was amazing about the results was that the power of a given idea was in its simplicity." The first prize went to engineering student Ayat Gomaa, 21: "I found out about the competition from the radio as well as at university. My idea was to plan your week ahead: one day to visit relations you seldom remember, one day for social or community work of some kind, a yoga class because it is good for both body and mind, and courses to improve your learning capacity before the start of another school year. This is the first time I've had such an opportunity, and I hope it will be possible to discuss it along with all the other ideas, even those that did not win, during the closing ceremony." Free for all "Painting Festival," read the sign at the Diplomats' Village North Coast resort. "All Ages." It was by the side of the pool; and arranged neatly underneath it was a row of tables and benches shaded by white-and-blue umbrellas. "I want to paint," one little boy piped. "First," Injy El-Kashef, journalist, painter and (together with ambassador Yousri El-Kouedi and well-known artist Esmat Dawestashy) festival organiser, "you must register." Name and age, indeed, were the only thing required; no registration fees, no application forms, nothing. Seven-year-old, Yassin El-Assyouti was proudly showing me what he was working on -- "A desert, a sea, a sky, a snake, a well, and a camel" -- when I noticed the red container on the table. "You don't understand," he put me straight. "In my painting the sun is sitting down, so the sky is red." How witty, I marvelled, turning to El-Kashef for further information. It was a great success last summer, she said. "We've had participants aged anything from three to 67." It costs nothing partly because spontaneity is what it's all about: "It wouldn't do to have people walk to the village head office and come back. The idea is for them to just walk in and start painting. Painting their hearts out..." There was no news of the festival anywhere in the village apart from that sign, but children kept coming, "because they spread the word", El-Kashef explained, and encourage each other. Still, as one little girl looked up and asked her, "what should I paint?" The answer seemed all the more pithy for being obvious: "whatever you want to, so long as you're happy painting it." What makes the festival special, El-Kashef explained, is that everyone is a winner. "It's not a competition," I heard her tell parents anxiously asking what the winner will get, again and again. "The idea is to let everyone paint, just for the fun of it." To let children express themselves and show their talent. No child is incapable of producing art once they are given a brush and some colours. Witness a two-year- old barely able to reach the table from where he is sitting on the bench, working with the utmost concentration. Indeed, as Nihal Sami -- El-Kashef's mother -- pointed out, when the board was entirely covered in colours, the two-year-old started painting on his own body. Sami had spent hours in the sun overseeing registration for no reason other than "seeing the children happily express themselves". El-Kashef added that, as a mother, she understands first hand why so many children tend to be categorically prohibited from using paints in the house -- which considerably limits their opportunities for creative self-expression. And this is why the festival is so important. Besides, she added, a child painting in company is much happier than a child painting alone: "They can compare notes about colour combinations and subjects." In the presence of an artist of Dawestashy's stature, she went on, it all becomes quite exciting. "You can see him walking among the tables, in shorts and print shirt, giving advice about colour combinations or how to make the sea look more alive. Small but significant remarks that make all the difference." She had spent hours on her feet encouraging the children. "So you see it is not just about painting, it's about learning to paint. Because they're so used to seeing things in three dimensions and when they try to put them down on a flat surface they fail. That's why I always tell them not to leave a single inch uncoloured." While El-Kashef arranges the gifts -- it is sunset -- the young artists are running about showing their parents what they have done, neatly arranged by the wall for all to see. The gifts, El-Kashef says, are for their effort. El-Kashef's own gift was rather more subtle. "Great effort," one parent told her. "Wish it was a monthly event." And many of the paintings did show real potential. Focussing in the main on sea, sun, sand and rainbows, two showed the Egyptian flag and one showed the Israeli and the Egyptian flag with the word peace between them. Diplomats' children, indeed. To celebrate, everyone gathered in the village cafeteria to receive their gifts and certificates of merit, with their names beautifully carved onto them -- the remarkable work ambassador Maher El-Kashef -- Injy's father --- who did his own bit. While the names were announced in the microphones and children marched to the podium, parents clicked proudly away. The entire budget -- allocated by the village board headed by ambassador El-Kouedi -- was LE600, LE200 higher than last year's. "Which allowed us," El-Kashef explained, "to have more and better brushes, colours and tables. This year we also took the heat into account, providing drinking water to avoid dehydration." Audiovisual galore Children in the six-18 age bracket have the benefit of a new educational unit thanks to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, working in collaboration with the Alexandria Atelier of the Assembly of Artists and Writers (AAW), with a special division -- in collaboration with the Alexandria Sporting Club, catering to special needs. The unit provides for, among other things, an audiovisual digital library, workshops in Egypt and beyond, and educationalists from all over the world. According to musician Sherif Mohieddin, head of the Bibliotheca's Arts Centre, the idea is to endorse children's creativity, enabling them to participate in the educational process, down to how the unit is designed: "We will adopt an especially developed approach to activities in music, graphic and plastic arts, animation, film, theatre and creative writing to facilitate the artistic development of the children and open up new horizons to them." There are two sides to the project, he added: to train the children to enjoy the arts; and to help the adult coaches deal with children. Targeting lower and middle classes, the project "will not wait for the children to come but rather seek them out in schools and slums". Already, at the Bibliotheca, the Arts Centre provides regular education, but the unit will be housed at the atelier both because of its convenient location and status as the oldest cultural organisation in the country. According to AAW President Mohamed Rafik Khalil, an atelier is a place where art is continually practised and the old pass their skills on to the young. Founded in 1935 by artist Mohamed Nagui and writer Gastro Zananiri, among others, the Atelier d'Alexandrie moved to its current location and was renamed Atelier of Artists and Writers of Alexandria City in 1969; a dynamic NGO, the AAW -- which has managed it since -- works to connect artists and endorse sharing knowledge and experience. And activities centred on children and the young -- summer courses, for example -- have taken place there for 30 years. According to Nisreen Hassan, an AAW affiliate who has taught art for seven years, children are spontaneous painters whose imagination helps them "achieve excellent results"; art will touch everyone, especially a child, whose imagination will readily respond to it. Jana Jahin, six, would seem to agree: "I love to draw the sea, the sky and faces." Already an artist of considerable renown -- winner of second place in the Thouti competition in 2006 and third place in a "psychological health" competition held at the Bibliotheca in 2007, she also won a certificate of recognition for work presented at an international competition on the theme of the environment and exhibited at Mirage Hall -- Jahin inherited her skill from her mother, painter and art teacher. For his part Mohamed Essam, 11, has been painting since the age of seven: "I express my feelings through drawing and painting." Sarah Hamdi, also 11, is rather more ambitious: "My uncle is a painter and he encourages me to follow in his footsteps. I want to join the Art College when I grow up, and to become a famous artist." Moataz El-Safti, AAW web and PR coordinator, gives a clearer picture: "the aim of this unit is to raise awareness of the importance of art and promote children's skills." Though open year-round, in the summer the AAW offers intensive courses; and this year summer options have been expanded with origami, graphics, multimedia and animation. Children especially love turning their pictures into audiovisual creations, he adds. Most AAW coaches are Faculty of Fine Arts students or established artists such as Fadel El-Agami, Hani El-Sayed and Nisreen Hassan, catering to six- to 16-year-olds and 17 and older students respectively. At the end of the course work is exhibited and awards of recognition handed out. "We choose the best work and submit it to competitions. I hope it will be possible sooner rather than later to publish art books or make animation films with the children..."
