Sharjah: Major groundwork for the upcoming edition of Sharjah Children Biennial (SCB), an artistic platform to promote creativity and innovation among children aged 6-18 around the world, is now complete. SCB has engaged 3,900 children in a variety of workshops for its sixth edition, under the theme: A World as Big as Your Imagination’.

In collaboration with UK-based global art project Little Inventors, SCB hosted these workshops in schools, museums, community and youth centres, bookshops, universities and malls in the UK, China, Lebanon, Argentina, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates over a period of three months.

The workshops focused on three themes ‘Helping Others, the Environment, and Entertainment and Creativity’, and engaged participants in a series of fun exercises and activities to help them explore how they would tackle a future challenge by drawing/designing an invention using their creative imagination.

In the UK, 1,143 children and young adults across eight cities in London, Essex, Newcastle, Tamworth, Cambridge, and Belfast in Northern Ireland, participated in these workshops held at 12 schools, in addition to the Design Museum in London, National Saturday Club, Heath Robinson Museum, The Nerve Centre, the Science Museum, the Apple Store — Regent Street, the Northern Children Book Festival, and other public venues.

In China, 2,198 young participants across 10 cities and provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Zhejiang, and Suzhou, which were held in 19 schools, three universities and design centres, and community places.

In Lebanon, 40 young artists took part in a workshop held in the capital Beirut to become the inventors of tomorrow, by drawing invention ideas by imagining what the world might look like in future; and in Argentina, the workshop engaged about 166 children in Buenos Aires.

In Bangladesh, 14 young recruits of the Girl Ambassadors for Peace Programme launched by the NAMA Women Advancement Establishment last November successfully completed a workshop, after which they were encouraged to reflect on the usefulness of their inventions within the context of their chosen challenge and establish the strengths of their idea.