Children from AÇEV’s Diyarbakır and Hatay centers exhibit at the 8th International Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial
Guided by artists Özgür Yener and İsmail Acar, children at AÇEV’s centers painted to music as a form of expression and healing. Their works are now on display at the 8th International Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial, a powerful reminder of what structured creative support can do for children who have lived through disaster.
The workshops that produced these artworks began as something simple: children gathering, moving to music, and painting in response to the rhythm. Artists Özgür Yener in Diyarbakır and İsmail Acar in Hatay guided sessions that slowed down and sped up with the tempo, moments of stillness and moments of release. For children living in container housing, often with disrupted routines and lingering fear responses, these sessions offered something rare: a structured, safe space where the body could move freely and emotion had permission to exist.
The therapeutic power of arts in post-disaster recovery is well-documented in the ECD literature. Creative expression supports emotional regulation, reduces anxiety symptoms, and strengthens social connection among peers, all critical buffers against the longer-term developmental impacts of trauma. AÇEV’s approach integrated this evidence into the practical reality of the centers: art was not a supplementary activity but a core component of psychosocial recovery programming.
That the resulting works are now exhibited at a prestigious international biennial is significant beyond the children themselves. The exhibition is a public statement, visible to Istanbul audiences and international visitors, that children in crisis regions are not defined by what they have survived, but by what they are capable of creating. AÇEV views cultural advocacy of this kind as an extension of its policy work: making the case, through art, for the lifelong returns of investing in children during their most formative years.