‘Mobile art museum to promote tourism careers among young Jordanians’

AMMAN — Teenagers across the Kingdom will have the chance to try their hand at art thanks to a project implemented by the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts that was launched on Monday. 

Financially supported by the USAID Economic Growth Through Sustainable Tourism Project, the initiative will add activities to the national gallery’s mobile museum to highlight career opportunities in tourism.

With the aim of raising the younger generation’s awareness of tourism through art, the project seeks to show beneficiaries how the sector benefits the local economy, Ibrahim Osta, chief of party of the USAID Economic Growth Through Sustainable Tourism Project, said at the grant signing ceremony. 

“A number of artists will give art lessons to children in several areas of the Kingdom. They will also teach them to produce artworks inspired by tourism in Jordan,” Osta told The Jordan Times.

At the end of each session, the seven best works will be selected for a national art competition, according to USAID.

Jordanians aged between 15 and 16 can benefit from the project, which will be conducted once a week and conclude in June. Organisers aim to reach at least 1,000 young Jordanians from various backgrounds in 12 governorates within five months. 

HRH Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi, president of the Royal Society of Fine Arts, said the national gallery’s mobile museum, which began operating in 2009, is a “pioneering project” not only for Jordan, but also for the whole region.

“Personally I do not know another country that has a similar project which takes art to adults and children who live outside the capital in villages, whose inhabitants might find it difficult to come to Amman and visit an art museum,” she told reporters. 

Princess Wijdan noted that the project is more about education than tourism awareness. 

“It is about introducing Jordanian artists to people outside Amman. Usually, everything is concentrated in the capital in the Arab world and most developing countries,” the princess added.

To date, more than 207 visits have been carried out to various areas in Jordan under the mobile museum project, with 30 local artists conducting art workshops, according to a USAID statement.