Anna Bergen, Jil Beyer and Monja Gillich are studying art therapy and pedagogy from the college for art in society in Ottersberg, Germany. Together they planned the Transcultural Art Project, which aims to examine the potential of artistic work in children’s homes in 2 different countries: “Haus Ivalo GmbH” in Germany and the Wat Opot Community in Cambodia.
Their two-week project at Wat Opot was filled with creativity, fantasy, self expression, free Artwork and Handicraft and commenced in February.

The theme of the project was:

“Encountering and experiencing happiness in a creative context”.

The focus lied on educational work with the children in order to better understand the conditions of the cultural life of the childlike experience of happiness. All the creative works were developed together with the children and served as an important communicative device.  One of the first art projects was gathering recyclables and transforming them into works of art!

They used many different mediums such as paint, oil crayons and markers/stickers, yarn and string:

Even before the exhibition, there were always chances to show off their work:

At the end of the two-week project a professional art exhibition was arranged in our renovated kitchen. The children had the opportunity to show and appreciate their creative works and in addition to all the residents and staff of the Wat Opot Children’s Community, students from the local highschool were also invited to visit. The children were so happy to finally show everyone their works of art, which they had worked so diligently on for weeks.

And then the final evening at Mediation, they were able to take their recyclable project to their room.

A further exhibition of the children’s drawings will take place in June 2017 in HKS Ottersberg, Germany. A lecture will also encourage other students to carry out art projects in the Wat Opot community or other orphanages.

Thanks for stopping by…

The Watopotians