Contemporary Art Week is an annual programme, which offers young people space to connect with the practice of a contemporary artist, experiment with different ways of artmaking, and collaborate with peers to develop creative work.
The 2024 edition was led by artist Alaa Alsaraji, whose creative practice centres around the themes of belonging, reimagining space and community.
The summer week gravitated around the central theme who do we make for?’, and explored the connection between artmaking and wellbeing. Across the week, the group visited exhibitions, experimented with illustration, clay, drawing, and printmaking, and spent a day at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve to create work out in nature.
Alaa Alsaraji is a visual artist and creative facilitator. Her practice involves working with community and school groups and is centred around the themes of belonging, reimagining space and community. She draws from her own experience of migration and displacement to connect on how universal feelings of ‘belonging’ and connectedness can be collectively expressed.
She is the arts editor of Khidr Collective, a multidisciplinary artist collective creating platforms and spaces for young Muslim creatives through the annual Khidr Zine and online platform.
In her role as a trainee Art Psychotherapist, she uses arts as a tool to support people in self.
