Introducing the 2010 participants: Soad Fayez Mahrous

Hello, I am Soad Fayez Mahrous, originally from Cairo but now I live in Beni Suef.  I  have been a curator of the Beni-Suef Museum since 1993, and am now at the head of the Egyptian section.  In 1996, the museum started an education department, for which I also now serve as the supervisor.

The aim of the education department is to connect children with the museum, to make them feel that the Egyptian dynasties did not end and that they are still going on.  I strive to make the museum easier to comprehend for young audiences by letting them touch, see, make, speak and think.   The museum receives children especially during the summer holidays, and engages them in a variety of activities including: drawing on papyrus, glass and ceramics; making necklaces or bracelets; and modelling clay to replicate statues they have seen in the collections.  After several months, we exhibit the products of the children in the Egyptian part of the museum.

I work with the belief that the museum is not only a place for antiquities but also a bridge for the children to feel their history and to connect with it.