When Maria is scared or worried, she repeats the names of people she knows. When she pours sand, she feels calm and happy. Maria is the autistic daughter of writer Miguel Gallardo, author of the graphic novel Maria and Me.
April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. On this day Garage Museum of Contemporary Art invites children aged 8 to 11 to take part in a masterclass about comics and a discussion about the book Maria and Me.
The masterclass will explore emotions and how we display them in public, and also how people relate to those who are different from them. Participants will discuss how the author expresses Maria’s emotions using drawings and will try to create a comic strip themselves.
