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Bahar Chirali
Bahar Chirali — Founder of Barti

Meet the artist behind Barti

Hello, I’m Bahar Chirali: a painter and a specialist in the creative and educational use of art. Barti grew out of ten years of in-person workshops with more than 3,000 children.

I trained in Painting at art academy in Turkey, then moved to Italy to specialise in painting techniques and to deepen my knowledge of expressive techniques and art therapy as tools for growth. After some time in England, in 2011 I went back to Cyprus and opened my own centre for children, ARTTERAPI. There, through play and artistic exploration, I helped more than 3,000 children discover themselves and build their self-esteem.

Over those years I learnt one thing: when a child copies a model, they learn to copy. When they start from a prompt and decide for themselves, they learn to think. That’s why Barti’s missions never show the finished result: they give a starting point and simple materials, and leave the decisions to the child.

After closing the centre during the pandemic and winning a battle with breast cancer, art became once again my safe place and a way to start again.

That’s how Barti was born — my painter friend, and a little bit my alter ego: she loves art in every form, adores experimenting and is never afraid to get her hands dirty. Today every mission is a printable sheet for families and teachers, so that what happened in my workshops can happen in any home and any classroom.

The ARTTERAPI centre

Barti grew out of ARTTERAPI, the centre for art and personal development I founded in Cyprus in 2011. Together with schools, institutions and charities we brought art workshops to children, young people and adults: more than 3,000 children learnt to love art through play.

  • 2012The 1st ARTTERAPI exhibition, at the Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM) in Nicosia.
  • 2012“Here I Am, and I Will”: a workshop on young people’s dreams and motivation, in the Management Center’s MicroAccess programme.
  • 2012–2014Creative reading with Limassol Social Responsibility (LSS) in the “There Is Another World” project: at Alsancak Primary School and at the SOS Children’s Village.
  • 2013The 2nd ARTTERAPI exhibition, “Being Different Is Beautiful”, at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia.
  • 2013“Art in the Window”: drawings by children with special educational needs shown in shop windows across Nicosia and Famagusta.
  • 2013“Seas Without Barriers”: an awareness event with ÖZEV special education school for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
  • 2014The 3rd ARTTERAPI exhibition, “Feelings”, at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia.
  • 2014Cyprus’s first Open Air Museum, with 37 artists and a team of 150 people.
  • 2014The “Introduction to Art Therapy” conference in Nicosia with Dr Gaelynn Wolf Bordonaro, director of the Art Therapy programme at Emporia State University (USA), together with CHART and JCI.
  • 2015The 4th ARTTERAPI exhibition, “Sharing”, at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia.
  • 2015“Happy Children, Productive Classes”: reading, writing and maths strengthened through art at Şehit Hasan Cafer Primary School.
  • 2016The 5th ARTTERAPI exhibition, “Home, Sweet Home”, at the Kyrenia National Library.
  • 2016–2017Partners in a bicommunal art project supported by Common Ground (BAF 2017), where we discovered cementography, an art born in Cyprus.
  • 2017The 6th ARTTERAPI exhibition, “Creation”, at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia.
  • 2017ENREDADAS: we represented Cyprus in UNESCO’s International Arts Education Week, with artists from France, Spain and Portugal.
  • 2018The 7th ARTTERAPI exhibition and sale, “Take Action”, at the Korineum in Kyrenia, with President Mustafa Akıncı and Meral Akıncı: children as active citizens, aware of environmental and social issues.
  • 2018–2020“Maximum Art, Minimum Risk”: art camps in Nicosia, Famagusta and Kyrenia, with the Prime Minister’s Office.
  • 2019The 8th ARTTERAPI exhibition, “The Race”, at Bellapais Monastery, Kyrenia.
Children wearing masks they painted, on a big group painting Painted footprints along a long roll of paper A cardboard robot built and painted together Sock puppets A hand painting a big papier-mâché globe Drawing on a clear frame, and drawing blindfolded A box decorated by a child The big portraits the young people painted, by the old walls Paint spread with both hands

The Barti method

Open-ended, nothing to copy

Semi-structured: Barti gives a clear starting point, never the result. Two children with the same mission make two different artworks.

Simple materials

Paper, colours and a few easy-to-find objects.

The grown-up supports, the child decides

Every sheet has a guide for grown-ups: how to help without taking over.