Sharjah Art Foundation hosted a series of workshops at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). SIBF is one of the most recognised book fairs in the country and attracts over 800 publishers from 42 different nations, with visitor numbers reaching over 400,000 for the 10-day event.

Emirati artist Najat Meky ran the first two workshops titled Colourful Dreams Workshop on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 November. The workshops encouraged children to express themselves through artistic form using drawing and colouring. Meky began the workshop by creating random grids on paper and then asked the children to colour and draw what they felt. It aimed to develop the children’s ability to notice the aesthetic values found in nature. The workshops held 20 participants on each day from ages 6 to 15 years. The participants worked with pencil colours, pastels, paint and markers to create their artworks.

The third workshop titled Commemorative Coins and Stamps Reproduction Workshop was held by SAF in collaboration with Verve Labs on Saturday 19 November. The workshop started with a short introduction about stamps and coins used in the Trucial States and after the UAE union. Along with SAF, Verve Labs led the painting session, in which the children applied elements from the coins and stamps onto t-shirts by colouring with fabric paint. The workshop was filled with excited children who were eager to paint and learn more about the history of coins and stamps.

While the children happily indulged in the fun, the parents too were very happy with the results and were eager to find out more about workshops planned by the Foundation for the future.