24 July 2009
Artsbridge founder speaks in Jordan
Posted under: Artsbridge; Press .
Artsbridge founder speaks about youth reconciliation - February 26, 2009
King’s Academy, February 26, 2009—Debbie Nathan, founder of the Israeli and Palestinian youth reconciliation organization Artsbridge, told King’s Academy students during school meeting yesterday afternoon how her organization is impacting regional and global youth.
Artsbridge, a non-profit organization founded in 2007, brings 15 Israeli and 15 Palestinian high school students together each year for a three-week long summer camp at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. At the camp, the youth address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through facilitated dialogue sessions and collaborative art projects. Each Palestinian student is paired with an Israeli student and together they create paintings and short movies and develop photographs.
“I am pro-Palestinian, and I am pro-Israeli,” Debbie Nathan began her speech, immediately engaging the audience.
She then projected a painting and asked the students what they saw. Some saw two faces, some saw a candle stick while others saw something totally different in the projected image.
This exercise, which Nathan conducted last summer with the first Artsbridge students was aimed at proving that each of us has a different perspective. Nathan explained to the King’s Academy students that the Israeli and Palestinian students came to accept or at least respect one another’s perspectives by the camp’s end. What is certain is that students from both sides overcame many of their prejudices and many actually formed friendships.
“These were kids who had never met one another,” Nathan said. “Israelis who had never met a Palestinian, never heard a Palestinian’s story. Palestinian’s who had never met an Israeli; never heard an Israeli’s story. Through art, the students learn each other’s stories”, she added.
Nathan went on to discuss the unique and specific type of dialogue used at the camp and how they were combined with the extensive use of art. She explained the therapeutic healing powers of various art forms that help people overcome traumas.
The Artsbridge founder concluded her speech with a silent film created by an Israeli student, Omrie, and a Palestinian student, Hasan, who became best friends through their paired project.
That evening Nathan ate dinner in the side Dining Hall with members of the King’s Academy Peace around the World club. They watched another Artsbridge student film and the students had an opportunity to discuss further peace and reconciliation efforts between Israeli, Palestinian and even Jordanian youth.
Source:
http://www.kingsacademy.edu.jo/public_pages/News.aspx?newsID=177&page_id=548&flg=tbl_16&indx=0
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