Gayer Anderson Museum hosts “Creativity in the Time of COVID-19” children’s exhibition

CAIRO – 15 December 2020: General Director of the Gayer Anderson Museum Mervat Ezzat and plastic artist Majd Masara inaugurated the first edition of the children's painting exhibition "Creativity in the Time of COVID-19" at the Gayer Anderson Museum.

The exhibition comes within the framework of cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the School of Arts, and extends until December 17.

The exhibition comes with the participation of 15 children between the ages of 5 and 11 years through 65 paintings of portraits, using pastel colors of all kinds, which reveals their creativity and imagination without any restrictions or stereotypes.

The exhibition aims to emphasize an important message, which is that creativity can prevail despite challenges and difficult times.

The Gayer Anderson Museum consists of two houses, the Mohammed bin Hajj Salem House and the Amna Bint Salem House.

These two houses are considered rare and precious Islamic monuments dating back to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It is located in one of the oldest streets in Old Cairo, Ahmed Ibn Tulun Street and Sayeda Zeinab Square.

Gayer Anderson was born in Britain in 1881 and worked as a doctor in the British and Egyptian armies until he settled in Egypt, which he loved and considered his second home since 1908.

In the thirties of the last century (1930-1935), the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Antiquities restored the two houses to become one of the most creative models of architecture in the Ottoman era.

In 1935, Anderson, who was interested in the antiquities of different eras, especially Islamic art, submitted a request to the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Antiquities to live in the two houses and furnish them in the Arab-Islamic style, in addition to display in it his archaeological collection of Islamic and Pharaonic holdings.

This furniture and his collection of antiquities were the property of the Egyptian people after his death, and the committee agreed.

Anderson passed away, and the agreement was fulfilled: The two houses and what was in them were handed over to the Arab Antiquities Service, making it a museum in the name of Gayer Anderson