Young Artists win Mossawa Center Human Rights Art Competition and get exhibited in Nazareth Art Gallery

24.2.2010

As part of its work to promote knowledge of Human Rights (HL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) amongst the Palestinian Arab community in Israel, the Mossawa Center regularly holds IHL workshops, particularly aimed at the youth. Earlier this year, a two day workshop was organized for young artists and art students, during which the participants attended a lecture on the rights IHL instruments guarantee them and the practical application in their daily lives of IHL norms. The participants were also given the opportunity to meet with the Red Cross and representatives of other NGOs, as well as with established artists whose work was focused on the promotion of Human Rights and change within the Israeli society, such as Yossi Lemel (Graphic Designer) and Abed Abdi (a Palestinian Painter) who offer a politically driven art work.

At the end of the two-day workshop, the Mossawa Center announced the launching of an art competition in which the young artists could enter. The competition was open to five different types of art works: painting, photography, video/animation, installation and graphic design and the participants were given a one month deadline to submit their work. A committee of artists and art professors then chose six winners from the dozens who entered the competition (the names of the competition winners can be found bellow).

Each of the young winners received a scholarship to encourage him/her in continuing to express their creativity and put their talent at the service of the promotion of Human Rights among the Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel. To further acknowledge their achievement, but also to encourage the cultural and art scene in the Palestinian community in Israel, the Mossawa Center decided to give them the opportunity to exhibit their work in an Art Gallery in Nazareth and to publish a professional catalogue of their work.

The exhibition opening took place on??? and different representatives of the Nazareth community, such as members of different political parties, religious leaders from different faiths, as well as representatives of the House of Culture & Art in Nazareth (of which the Gallery is part), were present. Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Center and Fareed Abu Shakrah, the Gallery Curator congratulated the winners in the Gallery’s opening speeches and presented them with their awards and scholarships.

1^st – Majida Halabi with “Little Red Riding Hood” (Video)
2^nd – Saleh Ali Khalel with “Metaphor, 1, 2, 3” (Photography and Graphic Design)
3^rd – Hady Azaizy (Photography)
4^th – Rani Zahrawi (Airbrush/Painting)
5^th & 6^th ex-aequo – Eid Adawi with “Between war and peace” (Photography) and

The exhibition will run until March 22, 2010. The Gallery is open all week except Sundays, from 10am to 5pm.