International Center Holding Weekly Youth Installation Art Exhibitions

The first Four of ten installation art exhibitions have been held at The Good Shepherd's Swedish School, the Dheisheh Prep. School for Boys, the Shepherd’s Greek Orthodox High School, and the Aida Prep. School for Girls. Six schools remain to hold exhibitions each Saturday for the next several weeks.

"We are very pleased at these exhibitions, they have exceed our expectations," said Anton Stephan the Installation Art Coordinator at Dar Annadwa. "We were especially pleased because some of the young women have very honestly expressed their concerns through their artwork--whether about love or the Israeli occupation. The project is a great opportunity for the youth, especially those in the marginalized areas to express their issues and frustrations"

Exhibitions have included wreaths of thorns and roses, live birds, and lighting fixtures with the keys to refugee homes and muddy patches with shoes as media.

The first four exhibitions have been resounding successes, each with more than 200 hundred visitors including parents, teachers and other interested guests. Most of the exhibitions were covered in the local television stations with students and coordinators interviewed. Visitors were also treated with sweets made at 'Illiyyeh restaurant in the International Center.

The project, funded by Tamkeen Civil Society and Democracy Strengthening Project , is intended as an advocacy tool for youth concerns which enables the students to express themselves in their own communities.

The project reaches across geographic, socio-economic and religious lines to bring in ten schools-three private, five government and two United Nations refugee. From each school, art teachers were trained in installation art and then fifteen students were chosen to design projects for the own communities.

For more information about the project and to see the already done art pieces, please visit the installation art website. http://www.annadwa.org/cave/installation/index.htm