Core Programme in SEKEM

A Conversation Without Talking: Revealing the Beauty of Nature and Character

SEKEM co-workers are benefiting from a number of different art workshops several times throughout the year.

Eurythmy, drawing or acting classes – the cultural field is one of SEKEMs major areas for development, not only of the individual learner but also of the community as a whole. SEKEM aims to integrate social and cultural activities into even the most mundane everyday work. No matter whether farmers, factory employees or office co-workers: SEKEM staff has the opportunity to attend cultural activities at different times a year.

During the past weeks, SEKEMs factories and office buildings were adorned with artistic works as employees who had participated the drawing courses presented their artworks on pin boards in the entrance halls. Some of them had been produced by members of the marketing teams of ISIS Organic, Atos Pharma and SEKEM Healthcare. Two times a week the artists gathered in the Art House of the Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development and experimented with colours and drawing materials. “I was a bit sceptical in the beginning”, says Abdullah Ahmed from the Consumer Service at SEKEM. “But after a while I became more interested in the mixing of colours and I was really surprised by the outcome.” Two by two or in groups of four the SEKEM teams drew pictures. “It was like a conversation without talking”, Abdullah tells, amazed. “It was stunning to see how the various characters of the painters or their groups materialised in the images on the canvas.”

SEKEM co-workers Abdullah Ahmed and Yvonne Floride creating a picture in teamwork.
SEKEM co-workers Abdullah Ahmed and Yvonne Floride creating a picture by teamwork.

Besides working with water or acrylic colours, the marketing teams also tried their hands on pencils drawing leafs from the university garden. “I have carried out this task with many groups, but the results are never the same”, Yvonne Floride remembers. She has committed herself to furthering all artistic activities within SEKEM for several decades already. “The pictures are always completely different, but everyone reveals its own beauty – this is the same phenomena we may also witness in nature: a diversity of beauty where no single thing may be compared to the another.”

Thus, the SEKEM co-workers did not only discover the beauty of nature by adapting its shapes and colours; they also learned a lot about their own character and inner beauty.

All pictures have been collected in a folder that every SEKEM employee receives when joining SEKEM. These folders also contain the co-workers’ certificates from all other activities and training sessions, for instance with the founder of SEKEMDr. Ibrahim Abouleish.

Christine Arlt