Our team focuses on conducting educational art workshops for refugee youths below the ages of 18 with any partner organizations here in Malaysia. We have previously worked with the Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI) as well as the Shalom Education Centre. Feel free to leave us a message in our contact page if you would like to partner with us.

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Our workshop consists of two sessions which is spread out across two weekends. The main tool that is used to teach these refugees skills on narration, storytelling, and creation, is “Art Analysis”. The term “Art Analysis” refers to an act of analysing and putting ourselves in the mind of an artist to better understand the motivation behind their creations. By reflecting on a piece of art, we delve into our own experiences and nostalgia, thus a piece of art means something different to every person that comes across it, which highlights individuality. Art analysis helps open up the mindset of people, by listening to different perspectives as well as interpretation of the art, it encourages thoughtful conversations and the understanding that there is more than one approach to everything. Our perspective of an artwork brings it to life as it changes for every person around it. It helps us value the art in how it appeals to us and what it means to each person. Most importantly, it stimulates thought and analysis, and provokes an individual to look past what meets the eye and open our mind to the view of others, which in turn empowers the refugees to appreciate the immense power that it holds and the importance of narrating their own stories. 

On weekend 1, individuals learn the essence of art analysis using some of UNESCO’s greatest artworks, after which they engage in a conversation with their peers to share their thoughts and reflections on the given artwork, allowing them to grow their social circle and to appreciate individual perspectives, emphasizing the importance of individuality. Next, an individual would practice recreating another artwork through what they feel best describes their interpretation of the original artwork, allowing them to feel empowered in creating their own stories based on their own individual perspectives. The contents of weekend 1 revolves around understanding different types of narration, as well as cultivating empowerment within that individual. The session is guided by a workbook that has been carefully curated by the Colours of Thoughts team that can be found at the end of this post.

 

On weekend 2, the session would be a free form session for the same group of individuals to create their own pieces based on whatever they wish to convey to our audience. In this session, they will apply the skills and techniques learned from the art analysis session from the previous weekend in order to strengthen the power of their creations and narrations, and to provide their own artworks with a very rich context. The created artworks are then posted here on our website, along with the summary of each creation, which serves as a platform to allow these young refugee voices to be heard through their art pieces.