KHARTOUM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese visual artist Rashid Diabdoes not regard fine arts as something exercised by artists, butalso as a lifestyle, a tool to change the community and a therapyfor diseases, especially for children.

Diab, founder of Rashid Diab Arts Center in Khartoum, incooperation with a group of Sudanese artists, initiated the idea ofusing arts for treatment of children's diseases like autism.

"We have big projects relating to the category of childrenincluding training via arts, civilizational behavior, raising kidsthrough arts and treating children of mental and physicaldisabilities by arts," Diab said.

Diab said that many children are being influenced by artstraining, particularly those suffering from autism.

"They could communicate through arts such as drawing andpainting with their peers," he said.

The center, with the concerned specialists, has contributed tothe treatment of many children through arts, which became a usefultherapy once used in a scientific and systematic manner, headded.

Musa'b, a seven year old child, said that the center has availedhim the opportunity to learn important drawing skills.

"I have learned much at the center. Now I can draw many shapesand I have become competent in using the colors to express aspecific idea," Musa'b said.

Shaima Abbas, a thirteen year old child, said that drawing,which was just a hobby before she came to the center, might becomea career as she grow more professional.

"Drawing is an expression of things inside the human being andthat colors are kinds of expression. I have also learned that theshapes represent a real reflection of a set of feelings," shesaid.

Rashid Diab Arts Center in Khartoum was established in 2007 asthe first arts center in Sudan. It organizes regular activitiessuch as an eight years old weekly forum.

The center is also concerned with documentation of the visualarts activities in Sudan, where it has collected many works forgenerations of Sudanese visual artists that have been published ina book about fine arts in the country and was printed by the ArabLeague.

"The center tends to upgrade the artistic taste of the Sudaneseaudience and inform with the Sudanese arts," Diab concluded.Enditem