The Helm Al-Nour (Dream of Light) art camp will be held from 1-7 October at the youth centres of the Abou Kir area in the Alexandria governorate. Registration for the camp closed in the first week of September. “We want to help form young people who are able to make contributions to society and understand its intellectual and cultural problems better. Ideally, we would like to help them understand that art is connected to society and is not isolated from it,” said Essam Fayez, the founder of the Helm Al-Nour initiative. The art camp is for young Egyptians between the ages of 18 and 25 years. They will receive theoretical and practical training from professional artists. It will also help provide young people with opportunities to work in the arts. Selected participants will be invited to attend specialised training workshops. Fayez explained that the art projects supported by the initiative will be produced through the joint efforts of young people working in various fields. The results will be presented at the closing celebration, which will be attended by stars and other artists. “In the celebration the young people will receive certificates from the Middle East Foundation for Research and Development (MEFRD), indicating that they successfully completed the training programme,” he said. He added that the training will include different kinds of arts presented by distinguished experts. Video photography will be supervised by Tamer Joseph, a director of photography and founder of the Lens Company. Audio engineering and music production will be taught by Mafdy Thabet, an audio engineer, music producer and director of Dream Studios. Editing will be taught by Ramez Atef, directiing by Maggie Morgan and Reda Shawki, and screenwriting by Tharaa Goubail. The acting section will be supervised by Shadi Khalaf, an actor, trainer and founder of the ZAT Studio in Egypt. Media performance will be taught by Dina Abdel-Karim, a broadcaster, director and founder of the Mediology Company. Maestro Nayer Nagui, founder, conductor and technical director of the Cairo Celebration Choir, will supervise the music and singing section. Nadine Emile, a dancer and choreographer, and Ezzat Ismail Ezzat, a dancer, will give lectures in contemporary dance. The fine arts section, including sculpture and drawing, will be supervised by Michael Adel, a fine artist and sculptor. Finally, the literary writing sessions will be given by Sahar Elmougy, an author and professor at Cairo University. “I would like to see Egyptian professional artists participating in the Helm Al-Nour initiative and other similar youth initiatives, supporting young talents to fulfil their dreams and reach the stature they deserve,” Fayez said. He added that it is important that talented young people believe in their talent and exert the greatest effort to achieve success, bearing in mind that this is not easy and comes at the price of a lot of hard and tiring work. The writer is a freelance journalist.
