Zaid Al-Aghbar joined Art to Heart in Nablus at nineteen. He came to develop his life skills and explore art as a means of self-expression. What nobody anticipated was the precision and focus he would bring to every piece — or the products that would follow.

Working with meticulous attention to detail, Zaid developed a body of visual work that stood out in his classes. Zaid is on the autism spectrum — and his relationship with pattern, precision, and visual memory is deeply personal and distinctly his. These qualities show in every piece he creates. At Art to Heart, he found more than a class — a long-term creative home where intensive, one-to-one mentorship and a structured training programme gave his instincts the space and direction to develop into a real artistic practice. His designs were not exercises. They were finished, considered works — the kind that stop you when you see them. It was this instinct for detail and composition, nurtured over time at Art to Heart, that led to the creation of the Memory Game: a product designed entirely around his artwork, now part of Art to Heart’s product line sold locally and internationally.

Zaid’s work is not a side story to A2H’s sustainability model — it is the model. In 2023, Art to Heart began building an economic empowerment approach rooted in a simple principle: that the creative work of artists with disabilities has real market value, and that recognizing that value benefits everyone. Part of every sale supports the artist. The rest supports A2H’s ability to sustain and grow its programs with less dependency on donor funding.

Zaid is one of several artists whose work is now reaching audiences beyond Nablus — through exhibitions, an online store, and points of sale inside and outside Palestine. His art is not a symbol of what persons with disabilities can achieve against the odds. It is evidence of what becomes possible when the right conditions exist.

That is what Art to Heart is building — one artist, one product, one market at a time.

Published on the Art to Heart website , 2026| Economic Empowerment Program,