After a 3 month (November 2006 – February 2007) preparatory session of the UNESCO Young Digital Creators (YDC) programme, 6 teachers/educators were selected and invited to take part in the face-to-face workshop among 65 participating groups of schools, youth clubs, community centres.

Additionally, there were 4 local educators from the Ministry of Education, Sharjah municipality, and the University of Sharjah who gave valuable input on the local educational scene of Sharjah.

The workshop was a collaborative educational initiative of UNESCO and the Sharjah Biennale, which took place prior to the opening of the Biennale in the Mac Lab of the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah, moderated by artist-trainer Jumana Abboud (Palestine) of the Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art.

In conjunction with the Sharjah Biennale's thematic approach on environmental issues, “STILL LIFE - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, the workshop focused on the topic of urban environment with brainstorming discussions on the unique surroundings of Sharjah.

As a starter, the teacher-participants undertook a visual mapping exercise measuring the physical and cultural familiarity between Sharjah and their different hometowns.

Working in a multi-cultural environment, the teachers formed two groups in making collaborative artistic urban productions according to the following themes, “Public intervention of pay telephones” and “Old and new" (contrast and contradiction of Sharjah), which were their own choice of subject.

They were asked to shape local contexts (spatial and socio-cultural) by transforming their critical reflections into tangible artistic representations. They followed a research-based process of collective knowledge, field observation and material collection as well as a project-building approach crossing disciplines. Visual communication was particularly emphasized as an essential practise in effectively communicating on one’s interpretation of urban environment through artistic intervention.

In result, the main output was the physical installation that was produced in the UNESCO exhibition space at the Sharjah Art Museum. On 4 April 2007 during the Sharjah Biennale Opening, the creative outputs of the workshop were presented to the representative of the Sheikh of the Sharjah Emirates, who was especially impressed by the exceptional experience of community-building for the educators to interact with their peer educators from different regions and cultures.

The UNESCO exhibition space was also dedicated to displaying the video clip on the YDC experience of LEAA (Laboratory of Ethnomusicology, Anthropology and Audio, Bahia, Brazil) as well as the Young Digital Creators Educator’s Kit List of participants of the workshop:

- Huda Abdulwahab Al Kawadi (UAE), Human Resources Training Coordinator, Ministry of Education Sharjah office
- Hanin Ibrahim Al Qadhi (UAE), Sharjah municipality Khurfakan Branch
- Nilgun Arikan (Turkey), Samsun Anatolian High School
- Bushra Abdullah Bin Ali (UAE), Al Gubibah Female High School
- Anthony Collins (UAE), College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah
- Sudesh Mantillake (Sri Lanka), Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Kandy
- Carsten Münchenbach (Germany), Gwerbliche und Hauswirtschaftlich-Sozialpflegerische Schulen Emmendingen
- Ahmed Nabli (Tunisia), Raouebi School, Bizerte
- Sherine Said (Egypt), Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria