Friday March 29th, 2024
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Honing Egypt's New Wave: The Art Room for Children

We head to Darb 1718 to talk to Egypt's youngest budding artists, ages four to 13, and find out what inspires them, under the tutelage of art teacher Riham El Sebahy.

Staff Writer

We headed to Darb 1718 where an exhibition was held for children of The Art Room – a school for the ages of four to 13 operating once a week, teaching them how to use oil paints along with their creativity to craft artworks from their own imagination as well as replicas inspired by previous art students. Curated and taught by art teacher Riham El Sebahy, whom we had a chance to speak to as well, the exhibition featured still life paintings and portrait paintings of humans and animals. 15 endearing little artists, quite shy in nature, came down to showcase their efforts and take part in our series of interviews.


It’s always a pleasure to see the young ones blossom through artistic endeavours that help in shaping their personalities and sense of self-worth. Their parents were beyond encouraging and the children themselves were reluctantly excited about the idea of being acknowledged and supported. When a child has the potential, art should be taken seriously, and El Sebahy has proven to be responsive and committed to the concept. The little artists were slightly withdrawn from communication, which we thought was somewhat adorable, and while their words were a few, with the exception of one cheeky and mischievous little cat-drawing girl who happens to be El Sebahy’s niece, their individual self-expressions were instead projected onto their artwork.