Seeds of Change
Cultural seminars & workshops by Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture
What is Seeds of Change?
Seeds of Change is a new initiative through which we’re setting out to share our institutional knowledge in cultural exchange and strengthening communities through the arts. Everyone has a culture, and understanding ourselves in the cultural contexts we bloom from can help us become more thoughtful learners and more informed community members. Through our directly offered arts and culture seminars and hands-on workshops, we are hoping to play a role in creating more space for cultural exchange, celebration, preservation, and understanding in our schools, workplaces, and communities.
“Al-Bustan began as a seed of an idea. I was grappling with creating home in America and staying rooted in my Arab heritage and Arabic language, while giving the tools and place for my boys to navigate both worlds”
— Al-Bustan founder, Hazami Sayed
Our arts and culture seminars & workshops fall into three categories:
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Our cultural education offerings tend to focus on a specific artists or artistic tradition from the Arabic-speaking world, employing either a seminar or workshop structure depending on the interests and needs of the community we are working with.
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During our cultural exchange and team building workshops, participants will engage in exercises and art-focused activities that prompt them to examine their own relationships to culture, while sharing and reflecting with each other.
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In our hands-on cultural preservation and storytelling workshops, participants will elarn about storytelling as a medium of archiving, cultural preservation, and community building.
We work directly with interested partners to tailor a given offering around their community, needs, and intentions. Workshops & seminars can be as concise as one hour and as extended as a year-long residency. Typically, our partners opt for one of these three options:
Introductory workshops (1 day)
Extended workshops (3 days)
In-depth workshops (5 days)