This Lebanese Artist is Using Art to Help Children Cope With Displacement
Beirut-born artist Abed Al Kadiri has been moving between studios, schools, and temporary shelters in Lebanon. Lately, his work has taken on a more urgent direction.
As war continues to affect families across the country, he has been creating art workshops for children who have been forced to leave their homes, offering them space to draw, reflect, and simply be children again.
About Abed Al Kadiri’s initiative
Al Kadiri is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice responds to political unrest and collective trauma in Lebanon and the wider region. Over the years, his work has explored how memory and violence shape everyday life, often through large scale drawings, charcoal works, and installation-based pieces.
At the center of his current initiative are drawing sessions designed for displaced children living in shelters across Lebanon. Following renewed violence in the country, he began organizing art workshops across schools and temporary shelters.
Children are given long sheets of paper and basic art materials and are invited to draw freely without instruction or expectation. The result becomes a shared surface where individual experiences come together in one collective space.
He calls them safe white spaces. They’re environments where children can express emotions that are often difficult to put into words. Some draw their homes, others use symbols of the Lebanese flag, while many turn to nature or imagined scenes.
At the end of the session, each of the children received an art kit placed in a paper bag. The kits included a sketchbook, coloring book, watercolor markers, colored pencils, and wax crayons. He wanted to encourage them to keep creating beyond the workshop, carrying their expression into their everyday lives.
If you would like to support Abed Al Kadiri’s work, make sure to check out his Instagram. He recently posted a call for volunteers to help support his initiative further, which you can check out here.
Check out the #Support Lebanon section for more content like this.
