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Using art to foster teen dialogue

E-mail|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Michael Paulson August 17, 2008 06:08 PM

A new summer camp that is trying to use collaborative art projects to forge friendship and communication between Israeli and Palestinian teens has wrapped up its first summer. The camp, called Artsbridge, brought 30 young adolescents from the Middle East to the campus of Endicott College, in Beverly. Globe North published a two-part series on the experiment, by James Sullivan. In today's piece, he reports:

"In many ways, Artsbridge, which ended its first year with a celebratory gallery showing at Endicott earlier this month, is designed like any other summer camp. The students - 15 Palestinians and 15 Israelis - played games, like dodgeball. They did karaoke, scavenger hunts, tie-dying. They played Rock Band and took a field trip to Blue Man Group. They complained about being awakened too early. But these young people, raised in fiercely sectarian neighborhoods from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, were also asked to participate in dialogue sessions that were sometimes raw and emotional."

The earlier part of the series is here.

(Photo by Jonathan Wiggs of the Globe staff.)

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Michael Paulson covers religion for The Boston Globe. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, won the Mike Berger, Templeton and Supple awards in 2008, and is a four-time winner of the Wilbur Award.
E-mail mpaulson@globe.com.

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