Middle Eastern Art School
It’s an artistic and cultural project that spots the children and young people that have had to leave their countries and the life as they know it. Their childhood has been stolen because wars, violence and human rights violations, that are going on in their home countries. Switching to another culture, like the Finnish culture, that is very different in comparison with
the middle Eastern cultures, can be very hard - especially for a child. It takes a lot of work and effort to interact in the new country and its culture. The aims of the project are:
To make it easier for the children and youngsters to integrate inside the society through art courses, such as courses of music, drawing, dance, theatre and other activities and joyful events. To connect the immigrants and original population of the country by arranging activities and events with Finnish schools and centres of art. To arrange a course for the immigrants to learn their own mother language and to practice it with the others who talk the same language. That will help to upkeep and to remind them of their own identity, while living inside a different culture. To arrange courses for the immigrants to learn about the Finnish culture, which will make it easier for them to adjust and to have a normal life in the new country, that is Finland in this case. To arrange different activities and public performances where the children get the chance to perform on stage. To discover and support talented children and to encourage the artistic growth in them in a way, that helps to build towards strong artistic identities for the future. The goal of these ideas is to make sure to increase the feeling of equality between the immigrant children and Finnish children in possibilities to have hobbies, have a community feeling and to grow artistically. founder and the artistic director the school is the artist Ali Haitham from Iraq. In cooperation with:
Interkult. Sibelius Academy-Global music department. Suomi-Syyria ystävyysseura ry. Alpo Aaltokoski Company.
