CELEBRATING CREATIVITY AT MUSCAT FESTIVAL

UNCLAS MUSCAT 000375

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARPI (TROBERTS),NEA/PPD (CWHITTLESEY),
ECA/PE/C/CU (DSCHUMAN)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO KDEM PREL SOCI SCUL MU
SUBJECT: CELEBRATING CREATIVITY AT MUSCAT FESTIVAL


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SUMMARY
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1. Embassy Muscat recently co-sponsored a month-long
"Children's Art Workshop" at the Muscat Festival, attracting
over 4,200 children and adults whose enthusiasm for this
unique program augurs well for it becoming a permanent
feature of the annual festival. Forging new ties with
Muscat Municipality and the Ministry of Education, Dr. Linda
Bastian - the American artist and art educator who launched
this innovative concept at last year's Festival - introduced
a variety of new media and projects to children from almost
200 Omani schools, offered "on-the-job" training to public
school art teachers, and encouraged parents to celebrate
their children's creative talents. End summary.

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BUILDING ON SUCCESS
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2. With a 60% increase in participation over last year,
the "Children's Art Workshop" was clearly a popular feature
of the Muscat Festival. In fact, because the program was so
successful last year, when it was implemented by the Embassy
in cooperation with the Omani Society for Fine Arts,
Festival organizers (Muscat Municipality) took the lead on
the sponsorship and logistics for this year's event while
relying on Dr. Bastian to develop innovative art projects
and provide on-site teacher training. Described as
"indispensable" by Muscat Municipality and working closely
with the Director of Art for Muscat Public Schools, Dr.
Bastian introduced activities that ranged from creating a
life-sized camel from discarded soda cans to using mixed
media for unique depictions of Oman's landscape and
architecture.

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TEACHER TRAINING
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3. A major benefit of Dr. Bastian's assignment was her
daily interaction with the public school teachers who
comprised the team of Workshop instructors. With only 20%
of their university courses devoted to studio work, art
education graduates are ill-equipped for the classroom.
"They are clamoring for help," the Director of Art for
Muscat Public Schools said, as he encouraged Dr. Bastian to
return and focus on in-depth teacher training. Responding
to this need, Dr. Bastian quickly developed a proposal for
next year's Festival and discussed it with H.E. Dr. Mona al-
Jardani, Undersecretary for Education, who praised Dr.
Bastian for "all of the good things you've been doing for
the Festival, the arts, and the children of Oman."

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PUBLICITY
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4. The highlight of media coverage of the Art Tent was a
segment on the Oman TV's nightly news, when Dr. Bastian was
interviewed briefly as part of the Muscat Municipality
festivities celebrating the children's artwork. In addition,
she was interviewed by Oman radio, whose English FM program
has an estimated audience of 500,000.

BALTIMORE