The Webdah School and Family Center, Amman, Jordan
Noura and Marianne
Webdah School, 2007
Children Learn and Talk Through Art was officially launched in September of 2006--the result of a collaboration between Claudia Lefko of The Iraqi Children's Art Exchange and Fr. Nabil Haddad, the Executive Director of The Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center. Working with parents and other community members, they transformed formerly unoccupied and under-utilized space in Fr. Nabil's church into a safe environment for children. The school is a response to the educational crisis facing refugee families in Jordan. UN and non-governmental organizations estimate that there are now one million Iraqi refugees in Jordan; at least 500,000 refugee children and youth.
The school has been renamed The Webdah School and Family Center; a prospectus and appeal for support was published in March, 2007. Discussions are underway to broaden the program to include an on-site family center staffed by a social worker and others from the refugee community. Services and guidance on a range of issues, from translation, to housing, work and visas will be available. In addition, the school will increase staffing, provide training for its teachers and expand the hours of the school day in the coming year. We hope the school will serve as a model; program staff will be available to consult with others in Amman seeking to create community-schools for Iraqi refugee children and youth.
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The Mural Project: A Collaboration between MassMOCA, the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange and the Webdah School and Family Center
The ICAE became involved with a variety of projects at MassMOCA when some of the art and photographs from our collection was included in an exhibit that opened in October, 2006: It's Elementary was the first all-children's art show in KidSpace. Seeing the art and photographs from Iraq inspired children and art educators at the museum to respond.
Drawing on mural, MassMOCA, 2007
Shannon Toye, a teacher at Clarksburg Elementary School and an educator at the museum, began working with Director Laura Thompson and children in an after-school program. They decided they would fold 1000 Cranes to send as a wish to Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan. Following the legend, their wish for an end to war and a world of peaceful coexistence would be realized if they folded 1000 Cranes. To explain the story, they wrote a play based on the story of Sadako and the 1000 Cranes; they performed the play at the opening of the exhibit at MassMOCA.
Making a Mural at MassMOCA
In addition to the Crane Project, the staff at KidSpace invited visitors to a "free day" at the museum to draw and write messages on a giant mural that would be sent to The Webdah School and Family Center, a nonformal school for Iraqi refugee children in Jordan. The school is a project of the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange and the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center (JICRC) in Amman.
The paper covered one entire wall of Kidspace; large trees were drawn to anchor the piece. More than 600 people visited KidSpace over the course of the day, people whose roots were in South America, China, the Middle East and Canada as well as the USA. They drew pictures, and wrote messages on the mural, creating an inspirational work of art that was presented to Fr. Nabil Haddad, the Director of the JICRC on a visit to the USA and then taken to Amman, where it was displayed along with the photographs of some of the children and families who had done the work. Iraqi children and their families in Amman, could see the wishes contained in the beautiful mural, and they could see the faces of the children and youth who had created it. In addition, in that same room of the school--our "workshop"-- the cranes were hung on strings in front of the windows and other cranes were put in large baskets on tables.
Iraqi artist Amer watches as boy works on mural, and unidentified man in suit watches, Webdah School, May 2007
Making murals in Amman, Jordan
In response to this mural, we decided to begin a mural project of our own at the Webdah School, inviting children and their parents to come on Saturday afternoons to paint, socialize and eat! In addition to our teacher Sander, we invited two Iraqi artists to come work with the children: Thamir Dawood and his friend Amer, whose last name I never knew. As the children and their families came and went from the workshop, everyone was struck by the sight of the beautiful cranes. They could sit and look at them one-by-one in the baskets; some had messages written on them. Some were the work of a beginner, a determined child folding for the first time. Others were small, and perfectly folded--tight little birds made of from beautiful paper. People were invited to take as many cranes as they liked; they were, afterall, made as gifts for these Iraqi refugees.
Creating an exhibit of murals from Iraqi children in Amman Jordan
I returned from Amman with murals for children in Western Massachusets; some of these will be on display in the hallway outside of the KidSpace@MassMOCA Gallery from July 16 through December, 2007: Pieces for Peace.
Thamir Dawood Interview
In preparation for and as part of this exhibit, Sara Gately, a MassMOCA intern initiated a conversation with artist Thamir Dawood and me. You can see Thamir's responses along with photographs he took at one of the mural painting sessions at the Webdah school in April, 2007. With his permission, I have done a bit of editing to try to clarify what he is saying. All of us are very appreciative of the effort and thought he put into organizing this...in English!
See more of Thamir's work at his web site.
Project Farasha: An Art Exchange And Benefit for the Iraqi Children's Art Exchange
An Art Auction and Fundraising Gala
October 13, 2007, 6:00 p.m.
Periscope Cellars and Gallery
1410 62 St. @ Hollis, Emeryville, CA
Children can also participate through a community workshop where they will collaborate on a series of murals begun by Iraqi children.
• MOCHA - Museum of Children's Art, Oakland-August 2, 2007
• Arab Cultural and Community Center, San Francisco-September 1st, 2007
For more information about the workshops and the fundraising event, visit http://www.projectfarasha.org/
The 1,000 Cranes Project
Beginning in October, 2006 children at Clarksburg Elementary School in North Adams Massachusetts, under the direction of teacher Shannon Toye began a project to fold 1,000 Peace Cranes. According to Japanese legend, a wish will be granted if one thousand cranes are folded.
The cranes were presented to Fr. Nabil Haddad, Jordanian partner to ICAE in The Webdah School and Family Center on his March 3 visit to Northampton, Massachusetts. Claudia Lefko delivered the cranes - a wish for peace in the Middle East from children in the USA - to the teachers, children and families at the Webdah School in April, 2007.
Paper cranes in a bowl
We unpacked the strings of cranes and hung them in our project room along with the MassMOCA mural. Hundreds of cranes that were not on strings sat in trays and bowls on tables, enabling children and parents to look closely at the beautiful paper and careful folding; many had messages on them. The loose cranes are there and available for children and adults to take.
