A display of matching art from U.S.
and Iraqi Children, Cooley-Dickenson
Hospital, Northampton, MA, 2006
The exhibits are about people; they are not about politics.
Using photographs, children's art, and a minimal amount of text, the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange Project opens a window onto Iraq and Iraqis and Iraqi refugees, especially children in Amman, Jordan. The exhibits provide visual images that enable people — children as well as adults — to put the country and its people into a meaningful human context. The images tell a story we do not get from reading the morning newspaper or listening to the nightly news.
The Iraqi Children's Art Exchange Project exhibits, like all art presentations, are created to engage the viewers; they invite reflection and encourage discussion. The exhibits have been hung at conferences,in schools, churches, libraries and galleries; the material is flexible and can be arranged to suit the needs of the borrower. The photographs and children's art can be a meaningful addition or backdrop to other events such as concerts, films, lectures and panel discussions.
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Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can
speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It
is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain
that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are
surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is
never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is
turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits
the sight.
- Jon Berger, Ways of Seeing |
Contents
Where the Exhibits Have Been
Steps to Borrowing an Exhibit
Gallery of Photos and Art from the Exhibits
Where the Exhibits Have Been
February 16 -March 1, 2008
Art from the Heart
Moorhead City, North Carolina
A collection of ten pieces of Iraqi children's art from the CARE art workshop in Amman Jordan will be included in the Arts Council of Carteret County's annual art exhibition and fundraier, Art from the Heart. Betty Skulstad, a Children's Advocate from Beaufort, North Carolina worked with Unitarian, Unity and Friends Peace Groups to make this happen.
According to the Council's press release, the event - a showcase for the talents of local artists - was the Arts Council's most popular and heavily attended event in 2007. One hundred and fifteen artists participated and nearly three hundred pieces of original artwork were entered. During the two week exhibition, an estimated nineteen hundred visitors passed through the gallery.
I Am Iraqi, the acryllic on canvas painting depicting a victorious Iraqi soccer player on the team that defeated heavily favored Saudi Arabian to win the Asia Cup finals in 2007, is one of the pieces included in the exhibit. The young artist is Abeer, a 10 year old Iraqi girl living with her family in Amman.
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October 26 - Nov 18, 2007
Dear Iraq, I Hope You're OK 41 Main Street Chatham, NY 12037 Contact Susan Davies: 518-392-9477. |
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Pieces of Peace
(North Adams, MA) Pieces of Peace, an exhibition of three murals created by Iraqi refugee children in Amman, Jordan, opened Monday, July 16th, 2007 at MassMOCA Kidspace. The large, brightly-colored murals, which will remain on display in the hallway outside the gallery through December 2007, raise questions about the development of child refugees as they adjust to their new environment. This exhibition is made possible through collaboration with the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange, a project started by Claudia Lefko, a preschool teacher and activist, and Kathleen Winkworth of Northampton, Massachusetts.
October 12, 2006 - Feburary 25, 2007
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November 1 - 31, 2006
Hello Iraq, How Are You? Art from children in Iraq and in the United States created especially for this cultural exchange project, and documenting photographs by Claudia Lefko. New Gallery, Cooley Dickinson Hospital 30 Locust St., Northampton MA |
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January 3 - 31, 2007
Hello Iraq, How Are You? Greenfields Market, Greenfield, MA |
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| April 14 - April 14, 2006 | Holyoke Children's Museum. An exhibit of photos and children's art was part of a month-long focus on Iraq. In collaboration with Books Building Bridges. |
| March, 2006 | West Springfield Public Library. Drawn Together: An exhibit of art exchanged between children in the USA and Iraq, and photographs by Claudia Lefko. |
| November, 2005 | W.E.B. duBois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Thrown Together: Soldiers and Civilians in the War Zone. The exhibit combined the Iraqi Children's Art Project with 100 Faces, an exhibit by artist Matt Mitchell of painted portraits and written statements of Americans who have been witness to and part of the theater of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. |
| September 17, 2005 | Artists for Justice - Peace Be Upon the World
First Churches, Northampton, MA |
| September 1-30, 2005 |
Fletcher Free Library, Pickering Room
Burlington, VT Press coverage in Vermont Guardian |
| June 13-19, 2005 |
Pathways to Resilience: An International Conference
Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| May 14, 2005 |
Grace Church, Amherst MA
A dramatic reading by community members of the newly released book Behind the Lines by Andrew Carroll, followed by a discussion led by the author. |
| April 14-17, 2005 |
Global Women's History Project
Women of Iraq and Iran: Visionaries for Peace in the Twenty-first Century Westfield State College, Westfield, MA |
| March 21-April 21, 2005 | Westfield State College, Westfield, MA |
| February 1-28, 2005 | Forbes Library, Northampton, MA |
