{"id":637,"date":"2021-11-12T10:45:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T10:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/?p=637"},"modified":"2023-08-01T17:22:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T17:22:59","slug":"one-kurdish-womans-creative-fingers-become-a-cultural-phenomenon-meet-znara-founder-of-sev-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/2021\/11\/12\/one-kurdish-womans-creative-fingers-become-a-cultural-phenomenon-meet-znara-founder-of-sev-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"One Kurdish woman\u2019s creative fingers become a cultural phenomenon: Meet Znara, founder of Sev Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By: Ebtedy Admin | 12 November 2021<\/p>\n

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By:\u00a0<\/strong>Sazan M. Mandalawi, a facilitator, a\u00a0PhD candidate in the field of education,\u00a0and a\u00a0passionate blogger herself<\/a>\u00a0focusing on culture and the creative scene in the Kurdistan Region of\u00a0Iraq.<\/p>\n

In one of the maze neighbourhood roads of Ankawa in Erbil is an old, classic home; vibrancy, life and positivity shine through its walls before you even enter. It is one of those homes where you can read the personality of its inhabitants before they open the door to welcome you.<\/p>\n

The Do-It-Yourself Garden furniture is like scrolling through Pinterest. The unique colour choices, hand-designed art on the walls, and the hundreds of large and small clay work displayed in the front yard are your welcome. There is always a board with a quote by the entrance door, next to it sit a bouquet of garden picked flowers, all this and you haven\u2019t said hello yet.<\/p>\n

Except this home is not a home.\u00a0Sev Gallery<\/a>\u00a0is a home turned into an art centre. The founder? Znara Ahmad. You can pick her out as the founder of Sev Gallery from far. Her energy is contagious, always dressed in black, her hairstyles reflect the art in her genetics; sometimes she wears a hairband, sometimes a brightly-coloured bandana, sometimes there is a clay tool woven through her hair bun, other times her hair sits naturally on her shoulders, a perfect frame to her almost always bare face. This woman\u2019s makeup is her smile, her energy, and the bounce in her movement as she moves from room to room in her Sev Gallery, just as a butterfly flutters her wings from flower to flower in a rose garden. Znara\u2019s rose garden is the rooms of this centre.<\/p>\n

From teaching ceramic at a University in Syria and ten years of work experience in ceramics, Znara practices art and lives, breathes, and employs art in her everyday life. I walked into Sev Gallery for the first time with my two kids as I was invited to the birthday of my friend\u2019s daughter. Naturally, the birthdays I am invited to in Erbil are usually equivalent to an engagement party like setup with fancy d\u00e9cor, layered cake, lavish do-not-touch-only-look type of objects spread on elegant table spreads of pretty cupcakes and desserts that are too cute to be bitten by children. This was a unique experience. I had never experienced anything like it.<\/p>\n

The children sat in a room and drew, then they painted. They then moved to a different room, with two professionals, where they wore little aprons and created pottery with clay\u2014while a third person framed the paintings they did earlier. Parents remained in the hall laughing and talking about how amazing it feels for children to go back to school after ten months of online school. Our laughter became like music to the background of our children creating pieces of art. A buffet of healthy, fresh food was spread on the bar table before we lit candles and sang happy birthday. I remember approaching Znara and telling her, \u201cYou\u2019re bringing a new culture to this community,\u201d She smiled wide with her bright teeth. I knew this was her vision and mission from within.<\/p>\n

On a different occasion, two dear friends of mine were newlyweds. They had spent a date night in Sev Gallery becoming ceramicists, doing pottery, creating statues and all sorts of objects. For as long as I remember in my city, a couple\u2019s date night has always meant excellent food in a nice restaurant in the Golden Zone of Erbil. Pottery to music and candles in a neighbourhood centre is a new, unique experience that only Znara can provide. With her creativity, Znara is bringing a new culture to this local community.<\/p>\n

I speak to Zanar about creatives in the Kurdistan Region; while she agrees it is still in its early stages, she points out that Sev Gallery is an opportunity for creatives, for children and adults, to discover their talents and perhaps find a hobby in arts and pottery in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt can be employed to develop individual skills, it\u2019s a means of psychological support, and even contributes to the educational impact on society\u2026the most beautiful thing in life is art. Music, drawing, and creating is a source of destressing,\u201d she tells me as we walk through the humble rooms of Sev Gallery. I can tell it is a big project in her mind, but she is starting small, testing the waters. Some of her first projects include training for schools and preschools in pottery and ceramics, private classes for children and adults as well as various other services like birthdays, celebrations, art classes and private bookings.<\/p>\n

Znara\u2019s Sev Gallery is beyond a home for creativity. It brings people from different walks of life in the community together. I cannot think of a place in my city where an expat from America, a woman from Sudan, a lady from Kirkuk, a couple from Baghdad, a mother from Lebanon, and a young Swedish employee of a local NGO sit together to create pottery with classical music in the background. I can only imagine how the staff of a company or an organization will enjoy an evening at Sev Gallery, creating art together, being spoilt to the most delicious food.<\/p>\n

Every time I set foot into Znara\u2019s home, I leave feeling light, I leave feeling inspired, motivated, stress-free, and it gives me the slight feeling that I am not missing out on raising children here, rather than in a western developed country. She tells me: \u201cOne of my visions is to contribute to spreading the culture and awareness of art in the Kurdistan Region.\u201d A vision I believe she is already bringing to life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Copyright photos: Znara Ahmad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ebtedy Admin | 12 November 2021 By:\u00a0Sazan M. Mandalawi, a facilitator, a\u00a0PhD candidate in the field of education,\u00a0and a\u00a0passionate..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.collectiveroutes.org\/ebtedy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}