With thanks to Julie Mughal and Fairfield Profs. Marice Rose and David McFadden, seventh and eighth grade Humanities students recently spent a morning at Fairfield University’s Lukacs Gallery, where we saw drawings and paintings by Syrian artists. These are artists who’ve fled Syria, as have millions of their countrymen, and come to live at Zaatari refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. The title of the exhibition, “My Soul Returns Back As It Was,” comes from one of the artists’ statements: What motivates artistic expression in the darkest times? The soul’s resilience, and faith in the persistence of home. Unquowa students wrote, sketched and discussed responses to the artworks, all richly detailed despite the refugee artists’ restricted media. One Unquowa seventh grader was moved to write a poem which has since been shared with the artists. Students discussed hope, loss and the meaning of home and drew connections to immigration and Middle Eastern cultures, both recent topics of study in Humanities. To learn more about the artists and how we can support them, visit The Amal Foundation.