BZU Museum and "Art4Schools Project, 2011 - 2013"

six West Bank education directorates with teachers from 30 different schools. The training
event was attended by a representative from the Ministry of Education and
Higher Education, Ayed Asfour; Representative of the Prime Minister’s Adviser for
Arab and Islamic Funds, Layali Ameen; BZU Museum Director, Enas Yassin; and Project
Manager, Najeh Abu Shamsieh. Training assessment was supervised by Vera Tamari, Yazeed Anani, Suleiman
Mansour, Bashar Alhroub and Dr. Issa Deeby.

In her speech, Yassin overviewed
the stages of implementation for the project and its
objectives. Asfour emphasized the role played by
art teachers in nourishing students emotionally
and psychologically as well as refining their
characters.
Tamari confirmed that this project will
provide a quantum leap in dealing with art, since
it allows children and students to creatively express themselves. Dr. Anani noted that
teaching art is not limited to drawing paintings only, and that he himself
discovered several aesthetic concepts through
art and was able to use art in teaching
architectural engineering. Mansour spoke about art education under
occupation, stating that he witnessed the
development stages of Palestinian art, including problems and challenges
encountered.

Dr. Deeby stated that art education in the region
of Palestine 1948 faces significant
challenges from the Israeli authorities, who
work to blot out the concept and
originality of Palestinian art.

The workshop is part of the project
"Art4Schools 2011-2013," implemented in collaboration with the
Ministry of Education and Higher Education and supported by the Arab Bank for Economic
Development in Africa /Islamic Development Bank. This Project was initiated by BZU
Museum in 2008 with the support of the Ford Foundation for the purpose of
integrating teachers in the process of producing art models to be used in the
teaching of art at school level.