We are the world, we are the children…

For better or for worse, I believe my child is an artist, and not a day goes by that I don’t thank her teachers past and present for recognizing and encouraging that aspect of her personality. I’m not saying she’s the next Maria Callas, or that everything she creates belongs in a gallery; but hey, Van Gogh didn’t sell a single painting until after his death and Picasso spent many years trying to paint like a child, so what do I know?

As I was searching out things to do and places to see, I found that there is a museum in Athens devoted to children’s art, and I thought it would be the perfect place to take my budding artist for inspiration. Little did I know how much convincing it was going to take to drag her there after our week’s adventures, but once she stepped inside the Museum of Greek Children’s Art, she saw it wasn’t just another dusty old museum. This museum, converted from someone’s home twenty two years ago, exhibits artworks by children 4-14 years old and has three current exhibitions.

The first gallery had an exhibition called “Alone or Unique? Diversity and Racism.” One of the first things I saw was a paraphrase of the Margaret Mead quote from my first blog post and I knew the battle to get here was going to be worth the tears and complaints. Greece has had a recent influx of refugees from war-torn countries, and it pleased me to see that through art the Greek schools and government had combined forces to battle ignorance and celebrate the diversity that immigrants bring.

Throughout the museum there were many hands-on activities without a lot of technology, aside from a few video pieces that older students had created. Here Susan and Dani are working on an activity in the corner where children had made self-portraits, cut them in horizontal thirds, and placed them into plexiglass cubes. You can try to match them into their original forms or mix them up to create new juxtapositions.  Whereas this room was filled with natural light and hope, from here we moved into a darkened room and were given small flashlights. That room focused on racism, and was mostly filled with pictures of crying children with others pointing their fingers and laughing at them.

Dani created a work with different colored hearts around the border and one big heart in the middle comprised of all the colors. It symbolizes love for everyone, no matter what color or how different they are. She must have been channeling Bob Marley, “One love, one heart…”

The next gallery held “In the Studio with Ghika.” Nicolas Ghika (1906-1994) was an Athens-born, all around artist. He studied in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s, creating paintings, sculptures, and even set and costume designs. His art is derivative of Cubism and Byzantine styles, and this gallery contained children’s works inspired by him.

The final gallery in the museum contained “The Right to be a Child,” inspired by the United Nations’ Convention of Children’s Rights.

One of the tenets is a child’s right to identify. Dani created an identity card, reminiscent of both her F.A.C.E.S. portrait and her “I am from…” piece in the ArtExpo.

Even more heart-wrenching than the works on racism were the few pieces on a child’s right to protection. Here’s one of them:

They were the last pieces you see as you exit the exhibit. Viewed from an American’s perspective, you realize how fortunate we are, and their impact made me count my blessings.