Understanding Islamic art Workshop gives local educators insights into a complex global community

It may have been frigid outside William S. Cohen School in Bangor on one recent day, but inside the school auditorium, there flowed the warmth of the Middle East.

That’s because 27 teachers, from as near as Bangor and as far away as Concord, N.H., had gathered for the workshop “Doorways to Islamic Art.”

At the front of the auditorium was the workshop’s presenter, Audrey Shabbas, from Arab World and Islamic Resources of Berkeley, Calif. The enthusiastic veteran educator was bringing to Bangor a curriculum that she had been honing from the late 1960s.

While not of Middle Eastern descent, Shabbas became interested in the region while growing up in the San Francisco area. She went on to become an international relations major at University of California-Berkeley, eventually specializing in the Middle East.

“There’s a lot of negative stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims, so putting a human face on people is very important,” Shabbas said.

Teachers play an important role in that mission, Shabbas said in her introductory remarks.

She told of one of her first students, now in his 50s, who called one day to say, “If you hadn’t been my teacher, then I wouldn’t understand what’s going on in the world.”

Next Shabbas used a slide show to present the five elements of Islamic art, as practiced in about 50 countries. Despite a balky projector, she pointed out intricate examples of tesselations, linear repeat patterns, arabesques, Arabic calligraphy and complex star polygons.

Then Shabbas handed out worksheets to teachers on which they could create their own gridded triangle tesselations with color markers. A tesselation is a repeated pattern of shapes that fit together on a plane, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

After lunch, Shabbas led the teachers in another art exercise in which they created squares for an Egyptian art wall. Each decorated a fabric square applying fabric paint onto stencils of Islamic characters. All were pinned up together to form the wall.

“Doorways to Islamic Art” was offered by Primary Source, a Watertown, Mass., based organization which offers continuing education for teachers.

Ryan Bradeen, director of Primary Source’s Maine office in downtown Bangor, said his group offers programs around the state and summer tours on such topics as the Middle East, Africa, Asia and American history.

“Our goal is to provide K-12 teachers with background so they can teach about these areas with more confidence in their classrooms,” Bradeen said.

Primary Source has developed a special relationship with Bangor schools. For a set payment by the school system each year, Bangor teachers are able to attend the Primary Source programs for free.

Sarah Tabor, an art teacher for grades nine to 12 at Bangor High School, has attended several of the Primary Source programs in the past, which is one reason she signed up this time.

“I didn’t know much about Islamic art, so I thought it would be a good addition to what I know,” Tabor said. “[Shabbas] gave very concise, easy-to-understand descriptions of Islamic art. Also, I could immediately use what I learned. I’m using the stencil project with my fabric design class, and I could use the patterns and designs for a clay assignment as well.”

Marta Robbins, who teaches art to sixth- through eighth-grade pupils at James F. Doughty Middle School in Bangor, wanted to learn more about Islam, which is part of the seventh-grade curriculum there.

“I gained a real appreciation of how pure, how mathematical their designs are,” Robbins said. “I’m already starting to put together lesson plans with what I learned.”

Kelly Desrosier, a K-6 art teacher from Unity, is a fan of the Primary Source offerings she has taken.

“Their workshops are fantastic, the main source of professional development for many of us,” Desrosier said. “A lot of us are making an effort to wrap geography and social studies into the art room, and Primary Source is a real interdisciplinary effort.”

For more information about Primary Source, call 942-7146.