MOROCCO

= MOROCCO = =Overview of Country =

 Kingdom of Morocco, also known as Morocco, lies on the north western tip of Africa. It was once believed to be the most western point in the world, which is where the name Morocco, meaning “far west” or “where the sen sets,” comes from. Morocco is home of around 30 million people, with half of the population being under the age of nineteen. Before Morocco gained its independence in 1946, it went through many different changes in power. Which led it to its very diverse background. This diversity shows through in the languages spoken, clothing worn, cuisine made, and culture. It’s almost like you're experiencing two different countries when you travel from region to region because of how diverse each region is with its culture. Most of Morocco, around 99%, is made up of the Arab-Berber decent the other 1% is a mixture of multiple other cultures including white Europeans, black Africans, and Jews. Because of the diversity Morocco is a very multilingualism place. While its official language is Arabic, French is still the official language in business, government, and diplomacy. There is also the unique language of Berber which is spoken in certain parts of Morocco, as well as Spanish.

=Arts Education = 

 Since 1957, art education was based on “geometric technical drawing and manual crafts” Three main reasons for this limitation on arts education came from economics, politics and religion. In 1961, only two percent of the population had arts education, and within that two percent it was only wealthy kids in private schools. The poor children went to public schools where art education wasn't even heard of. Morocco went through a very tough time in its economy which made it very difficult to gather materials for art in the schools. The materials were too costly and not of high priority to the schools. They also “lacked proper infrastructure to make art education available to everybody.” they didn't have art museums or organizations to promote the arts. The only type of art that children engaged in was manual crafts which they imitated after their “countries craftmanships”. The lessons were taught by the language teachers, who were not qualified to teach the arts, in the same room as all other subjects because of the lack of open rooms. A major political problem for the arts was the “complete absence of freedom of speech, as well as the little importance given to plastic arts by society.” Due to religious reasons, stated in the Koran, prohibition of the natural model left artists with a very strict set of rules in creating art. They were not aloud to do drawings or sculptures which dealt with anything of a figural form or relating to images that depicted their vision of god. They were forced to only create geometric art forms to avoid illegal products.  Morocco as natural environment always has, and will have a major influence on arts education. The lighting, color and shape that comes from the natural area around gives the Moroccan people “special sensitivity to shapes and colors” which shows in their art work.

=Current Education =

While it is still difficult to round up all the children of Morocco and get them to attend schools due to multiple reasons, there are still free, government funded, schools out there for them to attend. Many of the schools are American based and follow the American curriculum. Schools such as The Rabat American School hosts PreK-Grade 12 students. It is a “community-based environment” that hopes to prep the students to attend universities. The academic year is three trimesters and taught in English with French and Arabic as foreign languages. The elementary cu is based on language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and also has music, art, and others as electives. The secondary curriculum has much of the same classes along with yearbook/literary magazine, drama, and student services. The art taught at these American schools follows the western influences, which are mostly french, as opposed to the traditional arts of morocco. In Morocco, both western and traditional art are found side-by-side because so many of the moroccan artists have picked up european influence. The traditional crafts of Morocco are rug-making, pottery, leather goods, and metal work. The importance of Arts education rides upon how their economy is doing and what materials they can afford to gather. The traditional crafts are important to their culture but are usually learned at home from elders as opposed to in the schools. Education does not seem to rank too high on the general populations list which seems to be mostly because they are more concerned with working to make enough money to get by.

=Artist Profile- Mohamed Hamri =   Mohamed Hamri, sometimes referred to as Hamri the Painter of Morocco, was born on August 27, 1932 in the village of Ksar El Kebir in Northern Morocco. He died on August 29th, 2000 at the age of 68.Unlike most children in Morocco, he had the opportunity to be blessed with an artistic surrounding. His father was an artist who painted ceramics based upon ancient tradition. His mother was born in the Attar family, which was a group of famous musicians. Being raised in an art encompassed world had a huge influence on him. He was discovered for his artistic abilities at the Tanger train station by American author Paul Bowles, who took him in and privately instructed him and taught about modern European painters. Not only was Hamri a painter, but he was a writer, and promoter of the now famous Joujouka band too. Some of his famous paintings include: Cavaliers de fantasia, Asiah, and Procession a moulay driss zarhoun. His paintings usually consisted of dark black lines making up some sort of “strange primordial creatures” along with very bright and powerful colors. His art was said to show the “djnounn forces of Morocco” that seemed to flow throughout his paintings. Over his lifetime his art was on display in over 50 exhibitions all over the world. Outside his painting, he was known for promoting the vision of Joujouka music. He did everything in his power to help the Joujouke group, The Master Musicians, to make them huge. He opened up a restaurant, 1001 Nights, to allow The Master Musicians to be seen and heard by a larger audience. Because he was lucky enough to have musicians on his mothers side he understood the Old Moroccan ways which he embedded in the music group. He brought producers over to see them play and flew them to other countries where they could get gigs. He also wrote a book entitled “Tales of Joujouka,” which was about the group and their journey. Whether it was his paintings, books, or promoting of the Joujouka group, he made sure it all reflected the culture of Morocco and his heritage. 

=PROFILE OF ARTS INITIATIVE =

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*I chose to do an initiative as opposed to an organization for a few reasons. 1). I thought this was a very interesting/important project to hear about. For this young kid to donate his time and effort to helping the less privileged kids of other countries is incredible. It was such a great idea and I believe it probably really did help many Moroccan children find their way in life and stay out of trouble. 2). It is very difficult to find arts organizations in Morocco due to the lack of economic support. 3). It is also semi-difficult to find a lot of information about this type of thing because of the lack of information available on the internet.

The Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative is a project that is going on in Morocco to help bring arts and music education to the youth. Because of the low attendance rates in schools, this program is specifically targeted towards the children “identified as street children and orphans.” It’s hope is to give those kids a way to express themselves with the arts as well as learn new skills and be able to be apart of a group. They will educate children in film animation, music, photography, painting and dance. At the end of the project children will have produced their own short-animation films which will be on display and sold at events to help raise money for associations such as DARNA, Dar Lekbira, and the Rabat Children’s Hospital. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This idea was brought about by Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din. Mohsin double majored in International Political Economy and Middle Eastern Studies at Forham University in New York. He grew up in Kashmir, India and moved to the States in the 1970’s. He has always been interested in the political issues of the middle east and has done lots of work with those issues. In 2003 he produced a photo documentary about the victims of the human rights abuse in Kashmir. 2003-2005 he helped on a research project for the Kashmir for Human Rights Watch and is currently working on the Kashmir Peoples Tribunal. With the help of his band, Zerobridge, he has brought awareness to these issues on the MTV network. in 2009 the U.S. State Department granted him the Fullbright Fellowship Award, $4,000, to help fund his music and film/arts project for the orphans and street kids of Morocco. For over a year he worked with these kids to teach them how to produce music and how to write, direct and act in short films. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">He felt that “the children of today are the movers of our world tomorrow.” He wants to help both these children, and our world by giving them a way to enhance their lives through art and help better their society. Also, since the project is a combination of both American artists and Moroccan artists, it helps to symbolize the need for more American-Arab communication and relationships. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How this initiative works is that Mohsin and his crew will spend 2-3 months at two children’s centers in Morocco with children aged 8 to 16. First, the kids are taught how to take pictures and film their story through video. After that has been done they will teach the kids how to add audio and music to complete the film. They will also learn painting methods and how to create music rhythmically. “The overall goal is to open doors to creativity and expression for the children and enable them to develop art skills, develop confidence, critical analysis skills, and above all have fun.”

=<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Conclusion =

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Compared to my own personal experiences with arts education, there are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. Since a lot of the actual schools are in fact American based we have the same curriculum that we learn off of. Our main focus tends to be on the language arts, math, and sciences with electives in the arts. Also, from PreK to grade 12 the schools are government funded like ours (unless it is a private school). However, unlike America, their universities are also government funded. If comparing my education to that of the Moroccan based schools that have no American affiliation, I would say that my education is very different. While the children do have “mandatory” schooling through the primary ages, roughly 15, many do not attend. Due to lack of money and other issues, attendance is not very high. One fifth of the Morocco budget is spent on education, however most of that is spent on building schools as opposed to getting materials for them. For those who do attend the schools, art is not required and if taught, is taught by non-art teachers. They usually only have one class room where they stay and learn all of the “core” subjects and if time permits, will include some craft making. They also don’t have the materials that we have here because of poor funding and availability. Their art education is not as educationally based as ours and is more about watching and learning how to do the traditional crafts of their culture.The biggest difference in my eyes is the simple fact that most children don’t get any education which seems so unimaginable because of the way we are brought up in America.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What surprised me the most when learning about this country's practices is that they don't put as much emphasis on their cultural art as I had thought. They are seeming to adapt to the Western style of art more and more as the years progress and don't focus as much on their own way of art. I also didn't realize how many american based schools were in morocco and that they, for the most part, try to follow our curriculum of learning.

=<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">WHERE ALL THIS INFORMATION CAME FROM =

//<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Organization: // <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[]

http://dangerville.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/lollipops-crown-music-and-arts-initiative-morocco/

//<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Artist Profile: // <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/m/mo/mohamed_hamri.htm

//<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">All Other Information: // http://books.google.com/books?id=0IzDu8mX6SYC&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=art+education+in+morocco&source=bl&ots=HZ6GukKTgB&sig=R3h2ZUi7ZkkfvjYCW7YMSxXGzNE&hl=en&ei=ydBWTNiyI4P-8Aafv4CfBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=art%20education%20in%20morocco&f=false

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/392604/Morocco/46584/Education

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http://www.ediplomat.com/np/post_reports/pr_ma.htm

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http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/The-United-Kingdom-of-Morocco.html

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=<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">BY: CODIE BARRON =