Iraqi Plastics Art Gallery Exhibition & sale

Currently, Anita works for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Iraq. Her first visit to the Middle East was with a CPT delegation to Hebron. She works full time in Baghdad with CPT. Other than contractors and military personnel, CPT is perhaps the only western presence outside the green zone –the military and diplomatic epicenter of the War in Iraq. They provide an alternative voice of information and a secular advocacy role on behalf of mistreated Iraqi detainees.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, Anita risks her life to do her humanitarian work on the ground in Iraq. 

It is there in Baghdad, that she made the acquaintance of the Iraqi Plastic Arts Gallery collective of artists, whose exhibition is a highlight of our 2005 Chicago HAMSA Festival.  We are forever indebted to her tireless efforts to secure their works of art, transport them on an arduous journey from Baghdad through Amman, Jordan to the United States.  She enabled us here at Genesis at the Crossroads in Chicago to create our first-ever global humanitarian initiative, as the proceeds from the sale of their paintings following the festival benefited the artists and their families.

Iraqi Plastic Arts Gallery

Dalia Muhammad
Neshwa A Mumtaz
Sattar Durweesh
Muhammad Al-Zubaig
Muhammad Al-Kasim
Hadi Mahoud
Mahammad Handan
Mahammad Mssayer
Majid Hashim
Hayal Abd-Husdin
Muhammad Jahfar
Muhammad Hamdan
Haleem Kasim

 

 

 

 

 

The 2005 HAMSA-Fest was dedicated to the memory of one of the artists tragically killed in a car bomb six weeks before our Chicago festival.

Sarmad Ghazi 
In Loving Memory…May He Rest in Peace

The Iraqi Plastic Arts Gallery Exhibition and Auction was curated by Chicago-based Filmmaker, Chuck Trimbach in collaboration with Genevieve Daniels and Wendy Sternberg as well as other members of Genesis at the Crossroads. Many thanks to Tim Dashnaw, Maker of fine furniture for his work building the frames.

Genesis at the Crossroads graciously thanks Chuck Trimbach for his unending stream of energy coordinating with Anita David in Baghdad, arranging framers and stretchers here in Chicago, fielding galleries, emailing through the night, and all of the other details we will never know… His commitment to empowering and bettering the lives of a terrorized group of individuals, whom he may never even have the occasion to meet, serves as an example to the world.