Young Refugee Dreams on display at Sharjah Children Biennial

The Sharjah Children Biennial, SCB, has achieved a new milestone by enabling 420 refugee children to draw their hopes and dreams by submitting 34 artworks for its fifth edition, entitled, ‘A World as Big as Your Imagination’.

Beginning on 15th January, SCB will once again be held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, wife of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.

One of SCB’s main focus areas for this edition is to reach out to refugee children and encourage them to submit their artworks. In order to do so, an SCB delegation including, Reem BinKaram, President of Sharjah Children Biennial, and Dana Al Mazrouei, Curator of Sharjah Children Biennial, travelled to Za’atari Refugee Camp in Amman, Jordan, to conduct a series of artistic and creative workshops for Syrian children in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. After registrations closed, the organising committee tallied a total of 34 artworks received from 420 children from the camp.

"The slogan for this edition, ‘A World as Big as Your Imagination’, reflects the artistic voices and stories of refugees, who, despite having faced difficult conditions, and who were forced to leave their homes and countries, remain hopeful for a peaceful and happy future for themselves, their families, their countries, and for the world, which they continue to imagine and create in their beautiful young minds," said Reem BinKaram.

"One of our main objectives for this edition was to connect with as many young refugees as possible, offering them the biennial as a creative medium to freely express themselves, share their opinions, experiences and aspirations through art. Through the workshops we conducted at Za’atari Camp, we saw these children taking ownership of their personal narratives, expressing themselves using the tools we provided them with to challenge their imaginations and realities," BinKaram added.

The three submission categories of the fifth edition, Architecture Design, Environment, and Fantasy and Reality, broadened the children’s vision, and were reflected in their submissions. Working together in groups, their artworks depicted how they would like to rebuild their cities, schools, and futures in creative ways, fostering a healthy environment where the young artists could come up with solutions to their problems in both realistic and imaginary ways for the world to see.