DUBAI // Rashid al Suwaidi has severe autism and epilepsy. He has limited speech, finds it difficult to maintain eye contact and can spend hours staring at nothing with his mouth open and a blank expression on his face. Yet over the past few weeks, his speech has improved dramatically and he has a new sparkle in his eyes.
Rashid, 11, is one of six children with special needs who have been attending art classes supervised by Mona al Gurg, an Emirati student who is working with a community outreach programme founded and sponsored by Art Dubai and Al Madad Foundation charity.
Tonight, Miss Gurg, who has been leading the classes for nine weeks, will be on hand as the children exhibit their figurative and abstract paintings at a studio in Dubai.
“The quality of the art has really amazed me,” said Miss Gurg. “At the beginning, I totally underestimated the children’s abilities. I thought because they couldn’t talk and sometimes couldn’t even walk unsupervised, that they wouldn’t respond to my teaching. I was completely wrong, they produced work that was bright and intelligent. The art allowed them to express themselves in ways that they otherwise couldn’t.”
The children in Miss Gurg’s class have conditions ranging from autism to Down’s syndrome that affect their communication and learning skills.
The classes, limited in size so the children can benefit from one-on-one tuition, were set up by Art Dubai, the organisation in charge of the first contemporary art fair in the emirate.
Art Dubai is affiliated to Al Madad Foundation, a UK-registered charity, and together they launched Start, an initiative to use art to heal, educate and enrich the lives of children and young adults.
Miss Gurg, 21, a student at Zayed University, became involved with Start through its internship programme. As part of her course in visual arts, she worked with special needs children. Lessons began in February and the first exhibition was in May. The second, tonight, is a response to the popularity of the event with the students.
“The best thing about teaching these children is watching their skills develop over time,” Miss Gurg said. “Rashid, for example, was silent when he arrived, but after only three classes he was saying new words like ‘green’, ‘tree’, ‘blue’ and ‘river’. It is wonderful to see art working as a form of therapy.”
Krishna Kisani, 10, has autism and limited language and social skills. However, at art class these limitations dissolve. His mother, Savithri, said: “Since Krishna began these classes, he is a much happier boy.
“He has always responded well to colours and this is how I taught him basic words, numbers and writing skills, but in the class he gets something extra – interaction with other kids. It is invaluable to his development.”
Bee Tan, the mother of Emily, 14, who has Down’s syndrome and autism, said the classes helped parents to discover their children’s hidden talents.
“Children with learning difficulties often react to colours and movement more than normal boys and girls. Given the right care and attention, those with particular skills for painting and other mediums of art will really shine.”
Ms Tan added that Emily was sensitive to different textures and working with these materials was comforting to her daughter.
Miss Gurg said she tried to make the classes as varied as possible. “Some sessions we spent doing point work, where students would fill outlined spaces with dots of different colours. This helped them with fine motor skills. In other classes, I introduced them to image transfer, which is when we used special carbon paper to put a picture onto canvas. It requires a lot of patience for the children.”
The final class was spent on a group project, where the children produced a large and colourful image of palm trees, a river and two bridges.
The piece, made up of four canvasses put together to create a larger image, will be the main feature of the exhibition, which will also display a selection of national flags designed by the children.
Looking at the paintings, Miss Gurg reflected on her students’ work: “I have always appreciated art, but this is so different, it really shows how much creativity is locked up inside these children. Before this I never seriously considered teaching because I was more interested in creating my own art, but this is even more rewarding. These children do have special needs, but when you look at their art work I think of them only as special. They have inspired me as much as I have them and I hope the lessons continue long after I return to my studies next term.”