Children As Cultural Creators | First stop: Sohag

As part of our project “Children as Cultural Creators”, 15 children and teenagers turned yesterday’s newspapers, carton boxes, shopping bags, plastic bottles and other recycled materials into human-sized puppets, when puppets artist and theatre director, Ahmed Abdel Naiem, led a 7-days puppetry workshop in Idfa, Sohag. The children presented the puppets in a parade touring the village at the end of the workshop.

Ahmed Abdel Naiem, has been working in the field of theatre for over 20 years. He has an extensive experience in making different types of puppets, and has been working as a trainer and art educator for children, in order to guide them to develop and conduct their own shows.

This workshop was the first in a series of 3 workshops taking place in Upper Egypt this spring, aiming at stimulating children to become active participators in creative decision making processes. Each workshop has a theme and focus point, defined by the artist facilitating it. Last July DEDI had invited 3 Egyptian artists to take part in a research trip to Denmark, in collaboration with, BørneKulturpilot a Danish initiative, encouraging children to take the roles as cultural creators and managers in their local communities. The workshops now taking place in Egypt are inspired by the methodologies and expertise of the three participating artists, Ahmed Adel Naim, Nada Sabet and Salam Yousry.

The project is supported by the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute, DEDI.

Photo Credits goes to O Media