Minister of State David Stanton TD visits DCU Refugee exhibitions

David Stanton TD, Minister of State for the Department of Justice and Equality, this morning visited Cregan Library in DCU St Patrick’s Campus for a special showing of DCU’s Syrian Architects and Silent Books exhibitions.

Greeted by DCU President, Professor Brian MacCraith, the Minister was introduced to the curator of the exhibition, DCU Staff member Muhammad Achour, who was working in the School of Architecture at Aleppo University when it was bombed in 2013 and who organised the exhibition to show several possible futures for post-reconstruction Aleppo.

The exhibition features sketches, drawings and models from five young graduates of Aleppo University, some of whom still live in Syria but others of whom were displaced by the civil war and live in places as diverse as Malaysia and the Netherlands.

Speaking about his visit on social media, the Minister said that it was an “Inspiring visit to DCU this morning to see the Syrian Architects Art & Design exhibition. Great work happening for DCU’s University of Sanctuary Refugee Week.”

The Minister also met colleagues from the DCU Institute of Education to mark the opening of IBBY Ireland’s 'Silent Books' exhibition. ‘Silent Books’ are wordless picture books that can be enjoyed by children and young people regardless of language. IBBY makes regular a selection of ‘Silent Books’ that are felt to be particularly useful for migrant children. DCU’s exhibition is hosted in the Cregan Library in association with DCU University of Sanctuary and coincided with last week's lecture in DCU by Deborah Soria, founder of 'Silent Books: Final destination Lampedusa'.

Both exhibitions are open to the public until Friday 15 February.