Ahmed Muhanna, an artist participating in the ongoing Gaza Biennale, has launched a campaign to raise funds for art supplies for Palestinian children to cope with the effects of the war.

“I work with children in the field of visual arts and through psychological and emotional therapy through visual arts,” Muhanna wrote in the description for the campaign on GoFundMe. “We need your help to provide the necessary tools to work with children who suffer from fear and severe stress.”

He noted on the fundraiser’s page that he is seeking to raise some €50,000 (about $52,000).

Muhanna, a children’s art therapist who also maintains his own studio practice, said in an interview that hyperinflation caused by the scarcity of art supplies in Gaza has caused the cost of offering a single art project to a group of 20 children to shoot up to about $300.

“There are some materials needed for art here in Gaza, but they are expensive,” he told me over direct messages on Instagram. “Because the materials are not available in large quantities, their prices are expensive.”

Muhanna said he leads the art therapy sessions at refugee shelters for internally displaced Palestinians in Gaza. He said such sessions “have an effect in reducing the severity of fear, anxiety, and tension.”

Palestinian children in Gaza paint during an art therapy session. Photo courtesy of Ahmed Muhanna

“Children are in dire need of expressing their hopes, ambitions and demands through drawing and visual arts,” Muhanna said.

He previously spoke about the effects of the war in an interview on his participation in the Gaza Biennale, launched to support artists working under fire or who have successfully fled Gaza.

“Since the war entered Gaza, everything was turned upside down from the feeling of fear and excessive anxiety,” he said. During the first three months of the conflict, Muhanna explained, he could not hold a pen or brush from the shock, but he has since returned to a studio overlooking the streets of Gaza.

Now, he is just one of many who are trying to help the children of Gaza with art therapy.

Another fundraiser calling itself the Witness and Memory Initiative has raised some €2,498 ($2,580) of its €10,000 ($10,350) goal. That group said its mission is to use art therapy to help children express their trauma and emotions, while also offering them nutritious meals and school supplies.

A representative for that group said through a direct message on social media that its team is comprised of volunteers in Gaza who are working “to provide various services to children, including psychological, cultural, educational, and artistic support.”

“Regarding the art supplies such as paints, notebooks, and drawing tools, we purchase them based on the donations we receive and distribute them directly to the children, giving them the opportunity to express their feelings and experiences amid the difficult conditions they face,” the Witness and Memory Initiative representative said.

In its fundraiser, the group added that funds would be used to provide art supplies and therapy tools to help children heal through “psychological support sessions,” while also providing them with meals and school supplies.

Another group, Refugee Alliance International, is seeking to raise funds to support Gaza refugees in Egypt with art therapy. Refugee Alliance, according to IRS documents reviewed by Artnet, is a U.S.-based charity granted tax-exempt status as a nonprofit just before the war began in 2023. It has launched its fundraising campaign for such efforts on its website.

“The Art Therapy program is supporting children who were medically evacuated from Gaza tell their stories and provide a positive outlet for children to create and process,” Refugee Alliance said on its website. “Children in hospitals are provided with art supplies and encouraged to participate in art therapy sessions.”

Refugee Alliance said there is “an increasing number of displaced families” from Gaza in Egypt and the American organization is also aiming to help them “preserve Palestinian culture and community until the families are able to return home.”