ShareBy Faten Omar
Kuwait Times, on Tuesday, concluded the student art competition, "Kuwait, Years from Now" in collaboration with the strategic partner Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, at the Kuwait Times' Print House. The winners of the competition were announced - and they received valuable prizes and certificates during the closing ceremony.
The competition was very successful with more than 1,000 participating students from over 80 public and private schools, including 'special need' schools. The competition was aimed at encouraging students to showcase their artistic skills and abilities to share their ideas, insights and talents. For more over ten years, Kuwait Times has been holding art competitions - dedicated to students, to encourage them to express their talents and skills. It is part of Kuwait Times' social responsibility to promote emerging talents and encourages artistic and cultural initiatives.
The winning artworks were displayed during the ceremony in Kuwait Times Print House as a gesture to acknowledge the young talents. During his remark at the closing ceremony, Zain Kuwait's Corporate Affairs Department Manager, Hamad Al-Musaibeeh said "We are happy for our strategic partnership with Kuwait Times art competition that spanned more than 10 years. We witnessed today many motivated young talents in the integrated art exhibition from all age groups with their encouraging parents."
"Today's contest was an opportunity for Zain to get to know these stars. It is our social responsibility and our role as a leading company to support and develop these talents and provide them with the space needed for the future. I attended many previous art competitions, but this year had more artistic flavor. This year, we saw a lot of creativity and amazing ideas. Imaginations were translated from the artist's brush into the paintings," Musaibeeh commented.
of the jury members.
A panel of judges evaluated the artworks according to the age categories of students. Artist and juror Rania Al-Rashed told Kuwait Times that they were keen to select the best of the paintings presented - based on age and artistic standards for the paintings in terms of colors, balanced theme and rhythm of the art, noting that the selection was difficult. The submitted artworks were very beautiful and had wide imaginations.
The Head of the Art Department and juror Amal Al-Jufaira, said "I am happy and honored to be part of the jury for the Kuwait Times newspaper art competition. I liked the theme of the contest and many students participated. We tried to filter the best of the best. The chosen artworks were based on the idea, used techniques, and technical art performance. New and different ideas were selected, and the unique ideas were chosen brilliantly. This is what distinguished the winners from others. Many students had great arts and we did not want to oppress anyone. The choice was not easy."
Father of Alexie Rajeev, the first place winner (in the 6-9 Category) told Kuwait Times that his son started to draw at an early age when he was four. "I was surprised that my son won the first place. I thought he will only be awarded for his participation. We are very happy to know that my child developed such skills. He started practicing when he was only two - drawing pictures from TV with crayons," he said.
Mother of Batul Ebrahim, second place winner (in 6-9 years Category) said the awarding ceremony was magical, and seeing children standing with colorful artworks during the ceremony was indescribable. She noted that the artworks at the ceremony have something amazing in terms of colors and messages behind them. "I cannot put it in words. It was a beautiful experience. Batul always put all of her ideas on paper, doodling stories in a meaningful way. This is something she does normally at home. We did not know that she has too much talent. We hope to work on her talent for her future," she said.
Al-Rashed (second left) present an award to the third winner Areen Khairi Elmegrabi (center) in the 9-11 category
An art teacher of Areen Khairi, third place winner (in 9-11 years Category) said she is a talented student who has the passion in artworks and deserves to win. She pointed out that the school developed her art skills through their art programs, adding "I used to meet with the participating students, a month before the competition - to teach them art. We submitted 20 artworks from our students."
Areen's mother said that her daughter never used to love arts. "She later did, because of her art teachers. They start practicing with my daughter when she was six years old. She really worked hard on this project. She used to wake up early in the morning to work on her paintings. She is very smart. Her drawing was about the future of the solar system," she added.
Khairi's artwork was inspired by her homeland Libya. "We are from Libya. We do have power outages. The solar systems inspired her. At the same time, she was reading a lot about pollution and the sun as the source of energy while keeping the environment clean," the mother added. The art competition started from October 10 to November 13, 2022 (for a period of 35 days). The competition was open to students between the ages of 6 to 18 years - with categories (6-8 years); (9-11 years); (12-14 years); (15-18 years) and students with special abilities.
6-8 categories
9-11 categories
