in the beginning of the year 2015, and after so many years working in different fields, Sofia Maya Dawoudi '' the founder of MEET THE SYRIANS'' decided to go back to her ultimate passion, art... and in the lights of the changes our world is living in, specially the humanitarian crisis in Syria starting with the governmental cruelty and tyranny which was increased after the Syrian revolution started in Syria in 2011,and the born of one of the worlds scariest terrorists group (ISIS), through a lot of painful events which the Syrians had to go through. and then the refugees crisis that extended to Europe . the idea of: the S art house was born, a house for start -ups artists from all nationalities. for many months Sofia tried to establish this enterprise, but things weren't quit as good as she expected. but there was a glimmer of hope, when the committee of the European union opened a call for young entrepreneurs to take a part in a business exchanging program '' the Erasmus program for young entrepreneurs '' the idea of the S art house got excepted, and sofia took her dream to the exchange country ''Spain'' . in the city of Valencia, and in a small beautiful town called Ontinyent, sofia got hosted by http://www.eltratadodemaripaz.com/ for two month, and with the encouragement and mentorship of the director Dolo Moscardó https://www.facebook.com/dolomoscardo?fref=ts and her art director Montse Ortolá Insa https://www.facebook.com/montse.ortolainsa?fref=ts
Sofia launched the project of MEET THE SYRIANS online. within one week there was more than 30 Syrian artist subscribing in. MEET THE SYRIANS was supposed to be the grand opening of ''the S art house'' but soon it became an independent project! MEET THE SYRIANS was presented for the very first time in front of the major of Ontinyent which is the president of the cultural institution in Valencia . more Syrians started to hear and know about this project, many liked it and more subscriptions were there. the second presentation was in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in front of the jury of an international non-profit organisation based in Amsterdam ''MANIFESTA''.
during this time the working team of MEET THE SYRIANS has expended, many offered to join sofia in her dream to establish an event to celebrate art for freedom. Abeer AL Hariri, a Syrian visual artist living in Jordan joined along with a dear friend from Canada, Kathryn Kaiser which is a Canadian painter her self, and then Leen Al Ghourani, a young Syrian painter and a war refugee joined us from Germany. now our subscribers from Syrian artists are over 60, and we are working so hard to establish this exhibition and celebration, away from the reality ruthlessness, to bring hope and reunion. this is only the beginning of our story....and we are waiting for happy endings