Ramses Wissa Wassef
Ramses Wissa Wassef (born 1911 in Cairo, died 1974), was a visionary architect and designer who built many celebrated buildings in Egypt. He was an enthusiastic educator and a creative weaver who changed the life of many Egyptian children by teaching them how to weave their dreams into tapestries.
Creative Art Education and Textiles
Wissa Wassef attempted to prove that art is innate in everyone and that instead of the 'stifling education of the 20th Century' that he believe killed creativity. He set out to prove that children can all grow up to artists if they are encouraged to work in art and live surrounded by other artists.
He founded the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center in 1951 to help young Egyptian villagers create art and tapestries. He believed that "All children are endowed with a creative power which includes an astonishing variety of potentialities. This power is necessary for the child to build up his own existence."
Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center, Sakkara Road, Giza
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Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center Aerial View
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Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center
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Wissa Wassef Art Center 2nd Generation Atelier
Example Tapestries from the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center
Wissa Wassef taught the children to express themselves by weaving tapestries. Weaving these tapestries was a lively and creative process for the children because no preliminary drawings were used. By the end of the 1960s Wissa Wassef's Art Center was well known in many countries and was a favourite stop for tourists in Egypt.
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Entrance of the Village Market, tapestry by Fatma Awas, 1995
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The Village, tapestry by Naima Mahmoud, 1996
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The Blue Birds, tapestry by Saiid Ibrahim, 1985
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Sunset, tapestry by Ashour Messelhi, 1982
Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center Exhibits
Today, the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center is thriving and even after its founder died in 1974, the Center is still famous for its experiment in creativity and its lively tapestries. In 2006 the Art Center organized an Exhibition at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London to commemorate its 50 year journey in creativity. Some pictures from this exhibit are here
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First Floor Gallery
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Gallery and High Rap Loom
Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center's 50th Anniversay
This book celebrates the Center's 50 years of experiments in creativity. It has photographs of the center's buildings throughout the years and It has many examples of the early tapestries and shows how the work developed and the experiment is continuing.
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Egyptian Landscapes Fifty Years of Tapestry Weaving at the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, Cairo, 2006
Sources
- MIMAR 35: Architecture in Development by Taylor, Brian Brace, 1990
- Architecture in Continuity by Cantacuzino, Sherban, 1985
- MIMAR 5: Architecture in Development by Noweir, Sawsan, 1985
- Egyptian Landscapes Fifty Years of Tapestry Weaving at the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, Cairo, Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center, 2006
- [1], a site dedicated to the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center