Cairo’s Museum of Islamic Art has launched a new initiative offering music workshops to visually impaired people and individuals on the autism spectrum, the museum said in a statement Thursday.
The “Language of Music” initiative aims to provide participants with opportunities to develop artistic skills and express themselves through music, while highlighting the role of music in the cultural and artistic life of Islamic civilisation.
The first workshop introduced participants to the basics of playing the piano. It began with an interactive storytelling session on musical heritage and the importance of music in Islamic culture.
Piano instructor Enas William then taught participants the musical scale and led them through a series of gradual exercises based on excerpts from several songs. The activities were designed to assess participants’ abilities and responses to playing the instrument.
The exercises also helped organisers identify individual differences in participants’ skills and determine appropriate training methods for future workshops, with the assistance of trainer Karim Ahmed.
The museum said the workshop was held in a lively and welcoming atmosphere, drawing positive reactions from participants and their families. The initiative, it added, goes beyond teaching basic musical skills by helping participants discover their abilities and strengthen their capacity for expression and interaction.
The programme consists of weekly educational workshops held over the course of one month, with two sessions each week.
It is being organised in cooperation with Hope City Foundation and Noor Al-Basira Association for the Care of the Blind, as well as a group of visually impaired museum friends who were informed of the initiative through the museum’s official social media page.
