MIA hosting workshops for children during Eid holidays
The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) is hosting an array of online and on-site workshops for all audiences this month and in August, including activities that aims to raise awareness on the importance of protecting the environment.
During the Eid holidays young residents will have the opportunity to enhance their artistic skills and broaden their knowledge. A workshop dubbed Illustrating
Islamic Objects, set on July 27, allows students aged 12-14 to “choose from the objects from the MIA collection and replicate it in their own technique using paints, pastels or markers”.
On the same day, the MIA will hold its Planet Kids Club – Plastic online monthly story-time, discussion and activity about green initiatives that help preserve Mother Earth.
It is open to those aged 5-11 years. “This month the theme is plastic. You will hear a story related to plastic, participate in a craft activity related to recycling plastic bottles, hear about museum objects that were used instead of plastic in the past. Plus, we will provide some top tips on plastic alternatives,” the MIA posted on its Instagram page.
From July 27-29, the MIA also offers children aged 8-18 to take part in a workshop that teaches participants to make their own architectural designs using square Kufic.
According to the MIA, “square Kufic came from using the black square as a unit for measuring letters and white squares or part of it as space”.
“It was used in architecture (buildings and mosques, among others). We have different designs of square Kufic, square, rectangle, circle, star, and swirl, etc,” the MIA added.
The MIA’s recently-held ‘Young Architects’ online session gave participants a chance to learn more about I M Pei and the MIA building, and a deeper understanding of its building design.
The MIA said that the activity “challenged them to recreate the MIA with blocks, Lego or by sketching the building”, and lauded eightyear-old Rashid and Hamda for jobs well done.
Meanwhile, a Kufic calligraphy workshop for children aged 12-14 is also scheduled on July 27 from 4pm6pm.
The MIA noted that “many Qur’ans are written in Kufic calligraphy, which is characterised by its bold and vertical letters and comes is several types”.
“On this workshop the participants will learn about the history of the Kufic script, and then they will design a painting in Kufic script,” the MIA said.