Educational Programme helps in engaging students with contemporary art

The special guided tours for student visitors to the Biennial are aimed at engaging youth of all ages and help stimulate and encourage greater participation and understanding of contemporary art.

The Education Programme, to continue till the end of the Biennial, involves guided tours of the exhibits and participatory workshops with visiting artists, under the direction of the school teachers and supervision of art specialists.

Held under the central theme of 'Belonging', Sharjah Biennial 7 showcases the creative works of more than 70 artists, from 36 countries, at the Sharjah Expo Centre and the Sharjah Art Museum, and continues till June 6.

Specialist Biennial guides escort the students around the exhibition halls at both venues, explaining the works on show. Through this, students have the chance to reflect back on the work of art and to react to it through discussion, drawing and painting with their art teachers. Also included as part of the Education Programme are special sound workshops by Japanese artist Naoko Takahashi.

Hiyam Abdulwahab, Arts Teacher at Al Kamal School in Sharjah, who has led three such guided tours for her students from kindergarten to Eighth Grade, said that the Biennial has provided an ideal opportunity for the children to learn more about arts exhibitions. "The Sharjah Biennial, by its sheer magnitude, is a great learning experience for the students - right from its display to its organisation. The children also gain valuable insights into various facets of art exhibitions, besides acquiring the courage to produce their own art forms and expressing the ideas behind the same," Hiyam said.

She added that exposure to such a huge art canvas improves the creative abilities of the children. "They overcome the fright and start identifying the harmony between the lines, colours and the spaces, which in turn enhances their intellectual abilities to express themselves," Hiyam said.

During the tours, which have been divided into separate age categories, Hiyam said children have shown keen interest in different art works, and have been quite inquisitive about the materials used by the artists. "In particular, the character Mocmoc created by the artist couple Com&Com (Johannes M. Hedinger and Marcus Gossolt) was quite a hit with the children because of its varied colours and images," she said.

Mocmoc is not only an anagram of Com&Com but above all a fantasy character, a legend, an approximately 5.5 metre sculpture on the train station plaza of the small Swiss city of Romanshorn. The Mocmoc has its own identity and history; and Mocmoc songs, CDs with its musical versions and various merchandising articles are commonplace in Switzerland.

At the special sound workshops by Naoko Takahashi, the participants got an opportunity to experiment with recording voice, editing sound and performing their own pieces in a playful and creative way. "The workshop is a space for free expression for young and the old alike. In particular, the vocal harmony on show when children below seven years of age presented songs was quite a delight," she said.

Naoko added that the sound workshop showcased the varied identities of people, both individual and groups. "The Biennial gave me an opportunity to experience the quality of voices in the Arab world, which is very rich in cultural diversity," she said.

The Biennial is open from 9am to 9pm (Saturdays to Thursdays) and from 5pm to 9m (Fridays). Entry is free.