After many visits from the Dutch team to Gaza we were finally able to welcome an artist from our Gaza team to the Netherlands. 

Artist Mahmoud Alhaj was invited to spend two months at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague where he followed the program Interactive/Media/Design.After these two months Mahmoud will continue his trip in Europe to participate in a program at the Spanish Academy in Rome.

His stay in the Netherlands ended on a high with a joint exhibition between Mahmoud and artists Rob Voerman at gallery Plaatsmaken in Arnhem.

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After the war in May 2021 it wasn't an easy time going into summer. But the need for spaces where children could unwind was greater than ever and our colleagues in Gaza put their heads up and made it happen.We are so proud to say that there were 8 summercamps this year ranging from making music with children with disabilities to mixing science and art for a better environment.

After the horrors in Gaza during May 2021 we HOPE did not stay silent.The world showed a renewed interest in the situation and we were happy to share with them our experiences.

Some of that can be seen here (in Dutch):
Article in Het NRC (a popular Dutch national newspaper).
Radio interview for het NOS Journaal (the Dutch indipendent news channel)

Sadly the covid-19 / coronavirus has also arrived in Gaza. Everyone is now at home. The fear is great. An outbreak in this area would be disastrous!

The Open Studio and the Saturday Academy are one of the few places where online lessons are given. 

As part of this, our team is making many how-to video's and delivering special Corona Art Boxes.

Read more here

In the start of 2019 HOPE started a new initiative: the Saturday Academy. 
This is a place where children with a sensitivity for the arts can find a safe place where the can develop and which offers counterbalance to acquired traumas.
It already proved it's value the weekend after the attacks in November 2019.

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With the support of many amazing people we managed to collect the funds to run this project at least until the end of 2020. 

We are deeply grateful for all of your support.
 

More info in the blog of the last visit

With great pleasure and excitement we announce the opening of the first Breakdance Academy in Gaza!

Since many years HOPE has been collaborating with Breakdancer and gymnastics teacher Myuz.Myuz spends most of his free time teaching the children in the community how to safely stand on their heads.

With the support of HOPE Myuz will  be able to move from the streets to a well prepared and safe space where he and two other trainers can teach the children on a regular basis.How amazing!!!
 

On June 26 2018 the dance performance Phoenix premiered in Marseille. Choreographer Eric Minh Cuong Castaing (Shonen company) combined drones with people, dancers in France with dancers in Gaza and contemporary dance with the traditional Arabic dabke into a performance that shows two realities of live under drones.

They have already performed in different cities in France, Belgium and Germany and will continue to tour through Europe during 2020.

Phoenix is a co-production by Festival de Marseille, Ballet National de Marseille and Hope Foundation. Watch the trailer here.

It was certainly not an easy summer, but with a flexible attitude, 6 beautiful summer camps have been realized.

We would like to thank everyone who helped to realize and support these summer camps and invite you to find out more about the special projects that took place last summer here
 

During the winter of 2019 artist Suzanne Groothuis payed another visit to Gaza.This time things did not go according to plan, but it still turned out to be a very successful trip. Curious to know more and see some very colorful pictures? Read the blog here.

 

During the summer of 2019 HOPE had the chance to be part of four different summer camps. 

The Open Studio in Khan Yunis ran their annual summer camp for hundreds of children. 
There was a breakdance camp lead by MYUZ, we had a talented kids camp lead by Mohammed Al Hawajri and his team and we did a Land Art summer camp in collaboration with the Palestinian Museum that took place both in Gaza and in the Westbank. 

It was a very joyful summer!

More info and great photos here  

 

After participating in the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival and a quick visit to Gaza, artists Rosh Abdelfatah, Paul Bruijninckx, Ingrid Rollema and Suzanne Groothuis and HOPE treasurer Wim Rollema, traveled to Zaatari camp to implement www.BeeHomeAcademy.com. Zaatari camp is a Syrian refugee camp on the Jordanian border.
There we worked one week with a team of 8 teachers and loads of children. We shared, exchanged and created. It was an incredibly inspiring trip for everyone.

Curious?

Read the report here
Watch the films here

The Open studio has proven again that their work with the children is really something special.

In a big national contest in Gaza they won a staggering 3 prizes!
The first and second prize for painting and the first prize for the Dabke (dance) team!

Our huge congratulations to the team and the children for these great achievements.

The amazing children of community center De Mussen raised money by running and their parents gave generously during the Iftar. Youth ambassador Aya handed over the 1.000,- euro check to Ingrid Rollema. Such a great amount!

An enormous big thanks from the Hope Foundation for this generous donation. The children in Gaza will benefit greatly from this initiative.

With great creativity, talent and very hard work, a group of children from the Open Studio won the first price in the annual Gaza Dabke dance contest!
We are so proud and send our congratulations for this great accomplishment.

Here you find a video of their performance in the final round of the contest.

On 11 November 2017, the opening of the 'De Oriënt 2.0' exhibition took place in Pulchri Studio in The Hague. 'De Oriënt 2.0' is an art project, consisting of an exhibition with an extensive side program, in which contemporary artists present their vision on the current Middle East and North Africa. Hope Foundation nominated two Gazan artists for this exhibition: Mohammed al Hawajri and Mahmoud Alhaj.

Artist Marjan Teeuwen creates large-scale architectural installations in buildings that are subsequently demolished following her interventions. Constructive forces go hand in hand with destruction and decay in Teeuwen’s work. One of these projects is ‘Destroyed House Gaza’ for which she used an entire two-story building that was already bombed out as the setting for her interventions. By choosing to work in occupied territory she lets the local social context emphatically penetrate her work and the tension between the artistic and the political context comes to a head.

In November 2016 one of the regional television channels in the Netherlands broadcasted 5 short films about the work done by the HOPE Foundation in Gaza.
They are great little documentaries, filmed by Hugo Boogaerts, that give a very accurate representation of our work and the situation in the area. You can find all these films on our film page.

During ‘De Vredesweek’ (The Peace-week) in Assen in September 2015 exhibition ‘Look me in the Eyes’ was opened. This exhibition showed life in Gaza through the eyes of Mohammed Shurrab, photographer and inhabitant of Gaza City.
Also part of this exhibition was the premiere of the latest clip 'what's going on' by Marsel Loermans and Ingrid Rollema about the not yet shown face of Gaza and some drawings by children from Gaza.

On the 6th of august 2014 Ingrid Rollema took part in a talkshow broadcasted on a national television channel in The Netherlands (NPO). This show was recorded shortly after the 2014 war in Gaza (Operation Protective Edge) and spoke about how this conflict affected The Netherlands and what are future prognosis considering this conflict.
You can still watch this show here.

Short documentary, broadcasted in 2010 by the tv show Netwerk and presented by Aart Zeeman, about a visit by artist Ingrid Rollema to the Open Studio in Gaza.
You can watch this documentary here.

An article speaking about a visit by Ingrid Rollema and Harry Cock, published in Yabalia magazine in may 2010.
Read the article here.